The Long Holiday
Director: Johan van der Keuken
Year Released: 2000
Rating: 3.0
Dutch filmmaker van der Keuken reveals he has prostate cancer and only a handful of years left to live, so he decides to spend some of that time traveling and documenting his vacations as well as his own deteriorating physical state, as he visits doctors from Europe and the United States and even consults a mystical healer in Kathmandu (who proceeds to 'suck' the malady out of his system with a straw). The concept is obviously morbid but the auteur does a nice job at trying to accentuate the meditative aspects of his travels (from Burkina Faso to San Francisco) and views on earthly existence instead of indulging in sentimentality. The editing can get a tad erratic and some better segues would have been nice, but the matter-of-fact approach to dealing with illness and the celebration of travel as Good for the Soul deserve positive recognition.
