Holi-days

Why do we visit pilgrim’s places, art capitols and tourist’s paradises en masse? Travelling from Jerusalem via Florence to Las Vegas, Steinberger takes the answers to these questions to an increasingly general plane. In Jerusalem (welcoming 3 million visitors a year), we see tourists visiting the holy places, buying souvenirs and putting themselves through torments that Jesus Christ once endured. What they are looking for is elucidated in short statements by pilgrims, tour operators, church leaders, guides, scientists, souvenir vendors, etc. All these opinions put forward a few basic ideas. Tourism and commerce overgrow religion. Sacred places and objects give people the feeling that they are part of some higher order. In the same way, we look at Florence, where each year 6 million tourists drink in the prime of Renaissance Art. The (street) interviews allow the same conclusion as in Jerusalem. People feel dumbfounded and overwhelmed. The countless tourists and the massive trade in souvenirs ‘have turned the city into a congealed moment in time.’ The climax of this film journey is reached in Las Vegas. In this city, 36 million people a year enjoy replicas of famous cities and monuments, cinematic reconstructions of historical moments, spectacular shows and dazzling gambling palaces. Here, the reality, which people also look for in Jerusalem and Florence, is better and more typical (and even more soulless) than in reality. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)