Man Bites Dog: Meet Mr Different

Frans & the TV crew

The Dutch TV show ‘Man Bites Dog’ visited Frans Zwaagstra this summer, a bohemian farmer in the small countryside village of Zwaagwesteinde in Friesland, the far north of the Netherlands.

The 43-year-old goat farmer is the quintessential primitive man. On his farm Frans completely detaches himself from all stress and society’s mayhem. He’s old-fashioned and he’s proud of it. He’s an old-school farmer: chops his own wood, mowes with a scythe and only eats his home grown vegetables, like potatoes. He lives in a wooden shed on his parents’ land. His parents ‘don’t want anything to do with’ his life style. Frans likes to be different. According to him modern people are just plain boring.

You’ll see Frans (”…is different”) preparing to go on vacation, a cycling vacation to the Belgian Ardennes, 400 km south from his hometown. Man Bites Dog recorded his preparations and saw him off. One week later the show caught up with him in Belgium. Obviously, it’s all in Dutch, but the imagery will speak for itself, as it’s universal…uhm, maybe not…Frans is Frisian-Dutch, which is a combination that entails something that most people won’t be able to relate to very well…enjoy :).

Part 1: ‘On a journey’

Part 2: ‘Tasting mud’

Frans was such a (cult) hit that they took him to NYC (NY400), which had a big ‘Crocodile Dundee’ ring to it…:)

Frans & the crew on the bike, of course