The film The Devil’s Avocado, starring Jan Terlouw and Ilse Warringa as well as Bert Hana and Joy Verberk, will have its educational premiere at the Groene Peper Festival in Leeuwarden on 26 May. The sustainability event for the education of the future. The entrepreneurial premiere will follow on 13 June at MKB Rotterdam-Rijnmond and BlueCity. Jan Terlouw will address the audience at both premieres.
he Devil’s Avocado explores what dilemmas arise when a seasoned entrepreneur, founder AND grandfather (Jan Terlouw) decides on his deathbed that things must radically change with the avocado family business. The film paints a picture of the impact of 3 generations of entrepreneurs’ operations on the climate and local communities. The grandfather questions whether the business still has a right to exist given the impact of avocado cultivation. Do the owners dare to answer these difficult questions? Or would they rather look away and stick to sustainable packaging?
Starting a discussion
The film is an initiative of lecturer Sustainable Strategy and Innovation Godelieve Spaas and lecturer-researcher Rijnko van Diepen, both attached to Avans University of Applied Sciences’ Centre of Expertise Broad Prosperity and New Entrepreneurship. Godelieve Spaas explains: “Together with students and companies, we are doing research into what an economic mindset can look like, so that companies will take care of all life on earth. This requires really thinking differently. Not just developing sustainable packaging, but in the whole chain making everything fair and sustainable.”
“The aim of this film is to start a discussion about the difficult questions to take a new commercial mindset a step further,” she continues. “Not just in SMEs, but especially among students – the leaders and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. The film is part of a broader package: an article with background information from the research is also available. And various tools to deploy the film in SMEs, education and beyond.”
Jan Terlouw
For former politician, physicist and writer Jan Terlouw, it is the first time he is collaborating on a feature film as an actor. Director Kees-Jan Mulder came up with the idea of asking him and wrote him a letter. Terlouw participated out of his own conviction. He is convinced that our current way of doing business is no longer sustainable. “We won’t make it with this economy. It has to change, we cannot go on like this,” he says in a video message. Terlouw deliberately chose to address the entrepreneurs, students and teachers live at both premieres. “If we still want to save the earth, things have to change. Now.”
Information about the premieres
The education premiere is part of the Green Pepper Festival and will take place on Friday 26 May from 15.45 – 16.30 at NHL Stenden in Leeuwarden. Jan Terlouw will provide the introduction. The premiere can also be followed via a livestream. Prior to the premiere, the SustainaBul will be awarded, the ranking of student network Students for Tomorrow for sustainable development in higher education. This will be from 15:15 – 15:45.