About a Priest on Rain Boots
2022 · 29m · Netherlands
Directed by Wessel van Wanrooij
Genres: adventure, drama, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
When the demented Jozias needs to get help for his wife, he ends up in an odyssey that only brings him further away from his home and from himself.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A priest in rain boots sounds like a setup for a punchline, but van Wanrooij refuses to deliver it—instead he builds this deadpan odyssey that treats surrealism like a sober fact of life, which is exactly the kind of tonal restraint that makes contrarians suspicious until they realize the joke was on everyone else.
The formal precision here is extraordinary: van Wanrooij situates this melancholic, fantastical wandering in a visual and narrative tradition that feels both intimate and mythic, with each frame considered as a deliberate move in an argument about displacement and loss that accumulates its power through architectural restraint rather than sentiment.
The entire film hinges on van Wanrooij's decision to keep Jozias's descent into deeper confusion *affectionate* rather than tragic—one micro-performance choice that transforms what could be grim into something genuinely strange and moving, where the absurdity becomes the most honest thing about aging and care.