Baptism On The Tides

In a clean-cut suit, briefcase firmly in hand and a shiny pink piggy bank under his arm, Kamiel Maes, a groundskeeper for the parks department, stands at the door of the five-star hotel. The sliding doors open and the luxurious lobby appears. Whereas in everyday life Kamiel works in the park in front of the hotel and sees one Mercedes after another drive up, his savings have ensured that today he is standing on the other side of the door. In an overenthusiastic mood, Kamiel waltzes through the world of money and business. While everything seemed like a utopia to Kamiel, it turns out to be more of a world of unhappiness. Happiness proves to be relative, and the scents and colors of plants and flowers remain Kamiel's happy home.

At the age of ten, a young Napoleon Bonaparte thinks his parents are finally coming to take him away from the terrible school where he is being bullied. But because he has been skipping classes while waiting, he is now locked in the vacant dovecote on the French estate as punishment. What begins as a coping with a lack of affection and his own loneliness spills over into an escape into poetic reverie; associative scenes that expose his deeply held feelings.