The Man in the Clouds

For this project, students of three schools (the Koenigin Charlotte Gymnasium in Stuttgart; the Italian Carmelite School - Christian-Arab - in Haifa; the Leo Baeck Education Center - Jewish - in Haifa) have translated a Dutch children’s book into their native tongues (German, Arabic, Hebrew), based on the book’s English translation. Before, during and after their work on the translations, they discussed the book’s themes: (the dangers of) greed and materialism, compassion, selflessness, accepting ‘the other’, themes that are universal and play a central role in all three monotheistic religions.

We managed to raise funds which enabled the publication of a printed edition of this very special trilingual version of the book. Koos Meinderts and Annette Fienieg, the author and illustrator (whose work is very popular in the Netherlands) have given us the right to use the text and the illustrations for such an edition.

Outline of the story:

A man lives in a house on a mountain, in the clouds. Every day, after he washes himself and wishes everybody a nice day, he sits down to look at an extraordinarily beautiful painting that hangs on his wall. Apparently it depicts the universe, right after it was created, but we do not see it. People from the village in the valley below come up the hill to the house, to watch the painting. They appear to be (the language and illustrations are very subtle) mostly social outcasts, people that other people ignore or make fun of. The man receives them in his home, and in return they bring him small gifts (a piece of bread or cheese, a stone, a bottle of wine etc.). One day, another man visits the house and offers the owner of the painting a large sum of money for the piece of art. The man in the clouds throws him out of the house. He then becomes suspicious and almost paranoid. He refuses to let any visitors in, hides the painting (at one moment he cannot even find it himself), and finally burns it. After that, he becomes calm again, cleans up his house, opens his window and sees a beautiful view (which is described in the exact words in which the painting was described).

Here's a link to a PowerPoint presentation that introduces the themes and gives some information about the work of Koos Meinderts and Annette Fienieg.