Onze wil, onze handen

The concept of homeless people is often associated with wandering people in metropoles, who sleep in subway stations, under bridges and in doorways. Onze wil, onze handen, made in the Year of the Homeless 1987, approaches this issue from another angle. Not an individual homeless person is the central figure of the film, but the millions of people in the Third World who have to struggle hard each day for a bare existence and who are living in slums of corrugated iron and some old boards. The film portrays a number of people in the slums of Lima, Peru, a country that is persistently fighting for a better future. A lot of attention goes to the role of women in this process. A development worker thinks that women fulfil a pioneering role in the struggle for a better life. "We have no money, we only have our will and our hands", a determined woman says in the film. Onze wil, onze handen shows a lot of human misery, but also demonstrates that social changes can be accomplished. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)