Totaal Witte Kamer plot
'Totaal Witte Kamer' is an intimate portrait of the poet Gerrit Kouwenaar and gives an idea of his working method and poetic universe. In the documentary the creation of Kouwenaar's eponymous collection is filmed, a collection partly devoted to the death of his wife Paula. How does Kouwenaar translate his extremely personal experiences into poems that, according to his own statement, must rise above them? The documentary attempts to unveil something of this enigmatic process. The nearly eighty-year-old poet also returns to his secluded house in the south of France, where he spent several months with Paula every year from the 1980s. 'Total White Room' refers to the attic room of this house. The palpable absence of his deceased wife is concentrated here for him. The white room is given a new roof and gradually fills with a new reality in the film. A life without Paula. In addition to Kouwenaar himself, the film also includes his publisher Jan Kuijper, the poet friend Anna Enquist and critic Kees Fens.