Convento

Convento is a captivating hybrid documentary film from director Jarred Alterman, first premiered in 2010. This visually immersive film is a uniquely crafted insight into the magical world of Dutch kinetic artist Christiaan Zwanikken. Portraying the lives of the Zwanikken family, comprising Christiaan, his mother Geraldine, and brother Louis, who live in a 400-year old former Portuguese monastery, it cleverly weaves together themes of art, nature, and eccentric family life.

The film opens with an introduction to the Convento São Francisco de Mértola, a rejuvenated monastery nestled in the tranquil Portuguese Alentejo province. The serene wilderness around the property provides ample components for Christiaan's reanimated cyber sculptures, which form the mesmerizing visual backbone of the film. They are Frankensteinesque creations, metamorphosing scavenged animal bones and reclaimed objects into mechanized fauna filled with character.

Christiaan Zwanikken, the focal person of this film, is a renowned contemporary artist celebrated for his kinetic sculptures and installations. The Convento provides ideal circumstances for Christiaan's practice where life, work, and passion skillfully merge. His studio, cluttered with skeletal remains, mechanical parts, and tools, appears to be more of a scientist's laboratory. His creations, mechanical hybrids brought back to life, serve as the film's compelling metaphor for the family's revival of the monastery from ruin to a unique creative haven.

The film entwines Christiaan Zwanikken's art-making process along with his family and their harmonious co-existence with nature. Geraldine Zwanikken, Christiaan's mother, is a former prima ballerina, and her grace and poise are evident in her garden engagements. She stewards an organic garden, cooks exquisitely, and along with José, a Portuguese employee, takes care of domestic animals. This matriarch's affectionate relationship with the surrounding land provides intriguing underpinning plot lines to the film, connecting viewers to the daily engagements of the Zwanikkens.

Louis Zwanikken, Christiaan's brother, is a subtropical farmer keen on ecology and sustainable land development who oversees the renovation and upkeep of the Convento. His fascination with celestial navigation takes the narrative on a stargazing adventure, enveloping the audience into the contemplation of infinity and tie it back to the film's central exploration into the cycle of life and death.

The narration is minimal, allowing the incredible visuals captured by Alterman's distinctive photographic eye to play a significant role in the storytelling. The film beautifully records the evocative landscape of Alentejo, a never-ending golden plain, strengthening the film's narrative structure and providing an overarching poetic touch to the documentary. An ethereal score by Mark degli Antoni enhances the charm of this visual odyssey, intensifying the sense of mystery and surrealism imbued in this unique family tale.

Director Jarred Alterman explores these contrasting elements within the film - nature vs. mechanics, tradition vs. modernity, life vs. death - presenting them not in conflict, but as a harmonic intertwining that echoes within the art, lifestyle, and philosophy of the Zwanikken family. By doing so, he provides an intimate window into the unconventional life and unequivocal charm of the Zwanikken family.

Convento is a beautiful blend of art house, documentary, and visual poetry, revolving around an eccentric family's choice to retreat from modern society into a world they create. It leaves viewers with a deep impression of a life less ordinary, an existence that marches to the beat of its own drum, literally and metaphorically. This cinematic experience ultimately explores the narrative of a family rebirthing a forgotten monastery through art and lived experience, where the boundaries become blurred between the man-made machines and the rhythm of nature.

This 72-minute film is not just a portrait of an artist but also a homage to a unique lifestyle, a meditation on creativity and mortality, and a celebration of the interplay between technology and nature. All in all, Convento is an enchanting exploration of craft, creativity, and a family's incredible adaptability to design a life less ordinary and a world that is entirely their own. It's a film that allows viewers to linger in the artistic energy of an old monastery brought back to radiance against the visually spectacular backdrop of rural Portugal.