Ours Is the Labour

Jeroen van Bergeijk, Netherlands, The, 2007

Synopsis
"For us the work, from God the blessing" was the motto written on the wall of the Hooijmeijer Dutch rusk factory in Barendrecht. In the 1960s and 1970s, the factory that adhered to the Dutch Reformed Church was doing very well. So well, in fact, that it was hard to find enough labourers who were willing to commit to the tough physical work of making dough and baking rusk, the crisp bread that is a staple of the Dutch breakfast. For this reason, the company enlisted the first foreign workers from Morocco. They were all strong young men. They were placed in communal housing, working long hours to earn some extra money to provide a better future for their children. The foreigners were welcomed with open arms, and little was said at that time about integration or cultural assimilation. Filmmaker Jeroen van Bergeijk is the son of the factory manager. While the camera wanders around the abandoned buildings, we hear the former employees in voice-over, including both Moroccans and Dutchmen. They reminiscence about those first years of foreign labour in the Netherlands, when Moroccans hardly spoke a word of Dutch, but were still treated respectfully by their native Dutch colleagues. Their stories are colourfully illustrated by archive footage.