The Unplaceables

A group of addicts and former addicts from Rotterdam find structure, a salary and colleagues in their work as garbage collectors. They entertain their coworkers with all kinds of stories and provide each other with tranquilizers, because time goes by faster when you're feeling nice and calm. They find new uses for lots of the stuff they pick up on the streets, whether it's a joint or the tobacco taken from cigarette butts. Director René Hazekamp follows the garbage collectors as they attempt to get a hold on their lives. Addiction often gets in their way, although the protagonists are pretty good at rationalizing their problems into supposed insignificance. Some are almost 50, and the camera inspires them to look back on their lives, often triggered by minor ethical issues they encounter in their daily routines. Meanwhile, they're smoking down a "little breakfast" with the greatest of ease, and then, as if by magic, another joint appears. They don't care too much that it could cost them their job, relationship or mental health. As one of them says, "It's a dirty world, and no matter how hard you scrub, you can never get it clean." (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)