Skip to main content Skip to page footer
Fryske Akademy Fryske Akademy

Mother Language Day: North Frisian, Liwwarders, movie and beer (Slieker Film, Leeuwarden, NL)

Mercator Research Centre

Event

Language and multilingualism

Mercator

Both North Frisian and Leeuwarder languages will be celebrated on 21 February – International Mother Language Day – at Slieker Film in Leeuwarden. On that day, the North-Frisian film 'Amrum' will be screened at Slieker Film in Leeuwarden, with an introduction by Frisian scholar Henk Wolf. This will be followed by the launch of a language and art project to promote the Liwwadders dialect (also: Leewaddes), with the presentation of three Liwwadder specialty beers from the Grutte Pier Brewery, inspired by Ezra Efdé's book 'Ik rúk al aardech naar de schep'.

The movie Amrum

International Mother Language Day on 21 February celebrates language diversity, mother tongues and multilingualism every year. This is the twelfth time that the EBLT, together with the Mercator European Knowledge Centre for Multilingualism and Language Learning (part of the Fryske Akademy) and Slieker Film, will present films about and featuring linguistic minorities on this special day.

On the remote German Wadden Sea island of Amrum, everything is in short supply in the final weeks of the war in 1945. Twelve-year-old Nanning, as the “man of the house”, must do everything he can to provide food for his heavily pregnant mother, his little brother and sister, and his aunt. Despite all the hardships, life on the beautiful, windy island feels almost like paradise. But when peace finally arrives, Nanning struggles with his parents' Nazi beliefs and the opponents on the island.
 

Amrum (dir. Fatih Akin) is a poignant coming-of-age story. Diane Kruger stars in the film, which is inspired by Hark Bohm's autobiographical novel Amrum. North Frisian is one of the Frisian languages and is spoken in northern Germany, both on the mainland and on Wadden Sea islands such as Amrum. The film will be introduced by Henk Wolf, linguist, Frisian scholar and currently working as a research assistant for Sater Frisian at the Oldenburgische Landschaft.
 

Liwwadder specialty beers kick off language and art project

The launch of these three different Liwwadder specialty beers, brewed in collaboration with the Grutte Pier brewery, marks the start of a language and art project to promote the Liwwadders. Cambuur trainer Henk de Jong, councillor Hein Kuiken, and director of the Leeuwarden Historical Centre (HCL) Meindert Seffinga will receive the first copies from initiator Ezra Efdé on this day. The Liwwadder band Trio Ossekop, featuring Johan Juckers from the former Irish Stew, will provide the music, with Liwwadder classics (including “Oudste stapper fan 'e stad”).

The names of the special beers are based on proverbs from the illustrated proverb dictionary Ik rúk al aardech naar de skep. (2024), from a notebook from 1998, in which grandmother Aartje Feikje (Attie) Efdé-van der Wal recorded Leeuwarden proverbs and sayings. 

Remco Efdé, illustrator of this publication, also designed the beer labels. These labels have a QR code which, when scanned, opens a large yellow button where people can submit their own proverbs on the website liwwadder-spreekwoorden.nl. This website was created in collaboration with HCL and Cinnamon Interactive. The submissions will be included in a project with Graffiti Platform Leeuwarden, in which various artists are invited to choose a proverb and depict their own interpretation of it in murals in the city. With this project, we are showcasing the creative potential of local language, translated into a contemporary form.
 

You are welcome!

The film programme starts at 3 p.m. on Saturday 21 February at Slieker Film, Wilhelminaplein 92, Leeuwarden. Film tickets are available at Slieker. This will be followed by a public presentation of the Liwwadder specialty beers in the foyer at 5 p.m.

 

 

Back