Although our bodies eventually will give up on us, we are only truly gone from this earth if no one remembers us anymore. The number of soldiers who died during the second world war is huge. You only have to look at all the crosses on the American military cemetery Margraten in the Netherlands to get an idea as 8301 men and women have been buried there. Although the crosses do have names on them, most of these people have been forgotten, simply because they don’t have any family left. This also was the case for Private First Class James E. Wickline.
That all changed because of Maarten Vossen, who, after seeing Saving Private Ryan, became interested in the second world war and decided to adopt a grave. At age 13 he was assigned Wickline’s. It would be the start of a long search of the story behind the name and the grave. In Ageless Friends he is followed during his final steps in this journey.
Vossen had previously already found some information about Wickline and based on that he travelled to the US in order to speak to some people. After that he didn’t have the feeling yet that he had enough information about this man. He wanted to know what his life looked like before he joined the army, what his battle history was and finally in which way he died. In order to do so he visits the informational war centre, where Vossen really appreciates every new detail he gets to her. Slowly he is finally finding the puzzle pieces he was missing. With that information he decides to head to America again to make sure that Wickline is honored as a hero.
Director Marijn Poels creates an intimate portrait of a man with an obsession in Ageless Friends. All because this man feels a strong connection with a name on a grave. the shots Poels makes using a drone above the cemetery are impressive, but he also experiments attaching a camera to Vossen while he is running.
After watching the documentary you will question what it means to be a hero and how your life will resonate in the hearts of others. It is something you’ll want to discuss. It is inspiring to see how Vossen brings Private First Class James E. Wickline to life again through his research. His name no longer is just that, it is now a young soldier who had a long life ahead of him but unfortunately died in the Netherlands during the war.
