Aaron Rookus | Woensdagen (Wednesdays) / 2011

a strange request

by Douglas Messerli

 

Aaron Rookus (screenwriter and director) Woensdagen (Wednesdays) / 2011 [9 minutes]

 

8-year-old Kris (Tyn Hageman) is fortunate, so it appears, to have an older 28-year-old friend Willem (Viktor Griffioen) to regularly accompany him, with his parent’s permission, to somewhat distant indoor swimming pool, where they cavort with rough-house antics before sliding down the water slide and chowing down an order of fries. They shower, with the attentive Willem washing the younger boy’s hair, dry-off dress, and return home, Kris reporting his enjoyment of the event.

 

    And this Wednesday seems to be no different. They go through the same series of events—except this time after they’ve showered, Willem bends down to speak with his young friend, asking, rather casually, “Can I put your willy in my mouth?” Surprised by the question and confused, Kris shakes his head “no.” But his good friend persists. “But I would like to.”  Again,

and almost continuously from now on Kris shakes his head back and forth in the negative. “It will be our little secret.” “It will be only briefly.” Kris continues with his head gesture. “Promise,” declares Willem.

      Willem stands and continues drying off. “You had a nice day?

      This time Kris nods yes, to which Willem suggests, “Good. Tell them at home.”

      The drive home is a quiet one, with neither speaking. But when they pull up near to the house, when Kris seems in a bit of hurry to leave the car, Willem reminds him of what appears to be their usual routine. “Kiss.”

      Kris turns toward his “friend,” and out of site of the camera turns in for what seems like an extraordinarily long kiss—and lower that what might appear to be the lips. Clearly, Willem has been slowly accommodating the boy to the pedophilic abuse he intends to introduce over their future Wednesdays. That is, if Kris, now having willfully denied Willem’s request, is not a bit wise about what might be expected of him in return for the enjoyable middle-of-the-week events.

      We have no idea whether he might share with his parents what has happened. Children often remain silent about such situations, fearful more for what it says about them more than the aggressor. And Kris knows, surely, that if he tells his mother or father about what Willem has asked him to do, there will be no further Wednesday swims, no ride down the slide, no French fries in the future. Willem clearly seems unphased by the direction of events. Slowly, he may find a way to introduce the act as a kind of natural enjoyment or even impose it on the boy as he seems to have with the regular “kiss” of appreciation.

 

     This is Kris’ warning. Whether an eight-year-old can heed it is impossible to tell. He may simply chalk it up as another strange request from his adult friend. And adults are strange, always, to 8-year-old boys. At one point we see Kris stare at a group of three teens talking at the side of the pool, and we recognized in his face almost a sense of longing and wonderment. He desires to be like them, perhaps to join them. And just perhaps he may finally see Willem as a route into that strange adult world which boys like him both fear and desire so intensely.

      Dutch director Rookus has brought up all these issues so casually and flawlessly that it almost comes as a shock, but also as something inevitable, surely, that the parents haven’t bothered to ask about: “Why is a 28-year-old man so engaged with their young son?”

 

Los Angeles, March 30, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (March 2024).