In January and February, De Uitkijk shines a spotlight on those who deviate from the norm with our new special series: BUITENBEENTJES: CAST OUT. Through six films, we explore the lives of those who are cast out from society or actively rebel against it. From vast deserts to the streets of North American cities, from lost youth in China to the bridges of Paris, this series offers a universal perspective on marginalization—always with a deep sense of sympathy and human dignity. A tribute to the misfit, the outcast, the wandering soul!

Gummo (1997) and the documentary Streetwise (1984) depict the everyday lives of people on the fringes of society. Their existence is alternately chilling and humorous, cruel and moving, evoking both horror and compassion.

Streetwise follows a group of teenagers surviving through prostitution, begging, and theft on the streets of Seattle. Gummo creates a mosaic of the grotesque lives of poor, bored "white-trash" youth in Xenia, Ohio.

In Wanda (1970), The Lovers on the Bridge (1991), and Unknown Pleasures (2002), we follow wandering souls searching for their place in a world where they cannot seem to belong.

Barbara Loden, in her first and only film, Wanda, presents a stark portrait of a defiant woman whose life derails after her relationships, family, and work fall apart. In The Lovers on the Bridge, we see two drifters who find refuge and love on the Pont-Neuf during its reconstruction. Filmmaker Jia Zhangke, whose works are banned in China, portrays in Unknown Pleasures a lost generation of youth searching for meaning as capitalism steadily permeates all layers of Chinese society.

Finally, the Tunisian film Wanderers of the Desert (1984) transports us to a remote village at the edge of the desert, where children have never attended school, and the residents feel a mysterious urge to wander the eternal desert. The arrival of a teacher heralds the beginning of a clash between spirituality and modernity.