A cowherd with a stick drives the dusty descendants of the Holstein cow across a landscape of building blocks. Children quarrel over who gets to drink from the cyclists' water bottle. And a man in a dress quickly helps replace a front wheel. These are the opening shots of Olland, the heart-warming registration by artist Joost Conijn of the bike tour across Morocco he made with his tow friends John and Rogier. The film presents a different view of Moroccans, whose image is not all that favourable in Dutch society. The journey runs through the tourist-less backwoods of Morocco, where the cyclists are truly welcomed with open arms everywhere. They are invited into the mostly humble dwellings and richly provided with food and attention. The language barrier is not the slightest hindrance: evenings are passed with naming objects in Arabic and Dutch. The encounters are always extraordinary, like the one with an expat who speaks Dutch fluently and apparently used to live in the same street as John's ex-girlfriend.
