Peijnenburg’s Paradise Drifters in Berlinale Generation 14plus Lemming’s Berlin Alexanderplatz­ selected for Berlin Competition Drama Girl and Kala Azar in Tiger Competition Vanja Kaludjercic: new IFFR director Eye on Akerman in upcoming exhibition Dutch shorts at Clermont-Ferrand

Issue #38 February 2020 IFFR, Berlin and Clermont-Ferrand issue Index

4-5 Road to Paradise Mees Peijnenburg’s 20-21 Journey into the past Sonja debut feature Paradise Drifters is Wyss’ Farewell Paradise is a tale half selected for Berlin Generation 14plus a century in the telling, of a woman’s decision to remove herself and her four 6-7 Repurposing a classic Lemming daughters from a warm paradise island Film’s Leontine Petit, Dutch co-producer to a cold and hostile Switzerland of Berlin Alexanderplatz selected for Berlinale competition, discusses their 22-23 Going for Gold It may be set in update of Alfred Döblin’s classic the world of competitive gymnastics but modernist novel from the Weimar era Rogier Hesp’s Gold could be about any sport in which children are pushed too 8-9 For co-pro, see Holland See NL hard toward success by their parents checks out the Dutch angle on some of Berlin 2020’s notable titles 24-25 Dual perspectives Two Dutch films selected for IFFR Perspectives tell 10-11 Dutch shorts to Berlin Two Dutch the lives of two extraordinary characters, shorts, including Student Oscar winner the French caver Michel Siffre and the Marit Weerheijm’s En Route, are actress-turned-spy Leonie Brandt selected for Berlin Generation Kplus, plus a minority co-pro in Berlinale Shorts 26-27 Decaying from within In Jenneke section Boeijink’s modern, dark fairytale Porcelain, cracks in the facade of the 12-13 D for dazzling (and Dutch) Five perfect family life slowly but surely new and diverse talents from The begin to appear Netherlands talk about their selection for the prestigious Berlinale Talents 28-29 Beer at IFFR/CineMart goes programme 2020 Dutch In Beer, Erik van Lieshout very amusingly bites the benefactor’s hand 14-15 Drama out of a crisis In IFFR that feeds him, while two new dynamic Tiger Competition selection Drama Girl, Dutch projects were presented at Dutch director Vincent Boy Kars rewrites CineMart 2020 the life story of a young woman, and then asks the same woman to play 30-31 Vanja at the vanguard See NL herself in its retelling on screen talks to Vanja Kaludjercic, new director of IFFR Rotterdam 16-17 Creature comforts In Janis Rafa’s surrealist debut feature Kala Azar 32-33 Short and sweet Dutch film­ (in IFFR Tiger Competition) a couple makers were once again in the frame at drive around collecting roadkill, as well Clermont-Ferrand, the world’s leading deceased pets to deliver to the short film festival crematorium 34-35 Eye on Akerman The next Eye 18-19 Piece of the Tiger Two of the exhibition is about radical Belgian film­ films in IFFR Tiger Competition had maker Chantal Akerman Dutch minority support, self-taught Arun Karthick’s award-winning Nasir 36 Shooting Star Bilal Wahib, star of (Rinkel Film) and La Fortaleza Mees Peijnenburg’s Paradise Drifters, (co-produced by Viking Film) selected for Berlin Generation 14plus

2 COLOPHON

SEE NL, a collaboration between Eye and the Netherlands Film Fund, is the umbrella body for the international promotion of Dutch films and film culture. SEE NL Magazine is published four times per year and is distributed to international film professionals.

Editors in chief: Ido Abram. Nathalie Mierop (Eye), Jonathan Mees (Netherlands Film Fund) Executive editor: Nick Cunningham Contributors: Geoffrey Macnab Concept & Design: Lava.nl Layout: def., Amsterdam Printing: mediaLiaison Printed on FSC paper

© All rights reserved: The Netherlands Film Fund and Eye Filmmuseum 2020

CONTACT Ido Abram Director of SEE NL E [email protected]

Eye Filmmuseum PO BOX 37767 1030 BJ T Amsterdam The Netherlands T +31 20 758 2375 W www.eyefilm.nl

Jonathan Mees Communications Manager Netherlands Film Fund E [email protected]

Netherlands Film Fund Pijnackerstraat 5 1072 JS Amsterdam The Netherlands T +31 20 570 7676 W www.filmfund.nl

ISSN: 2589-3521

Cover: Paradise Drifters Mees Peijnenburg See page 4 Farewell Paradise Sonja Wyss page 20

3 Berlin Generation 14plus and IFFR Limelight Road to Paradise Paradise Drifters Mees Peijnenburg

Mees Peijnenburg straightforward circumstances. young adults between 18 and 25 Peijnenburg hadn’t been able to find “can still find a bed at night when anyone to play Chloe when his they don’t have some other place to girlfriend tipped him off about an fall back on.” actress she had seen on a Dutch NTR TV programme, Dream School, The film (due to be released in about youngsters from troubled The Netherlands in April by Gusto) backgrounds who are given the develops into a road movie. It was chance to go back to school. shot all over Europe, in Marseilles and Barcelona as well as in The Paradise Drifters is writer-direc­tor “She was super pure, honest, open, Netherlands.­ Peijnenburg sees it as Mees Peijnenburg’s debut feature, fragile,” Peijnenburg says of the following on from his Golden Calf writes Geoffrey Macnab, follow­ audition that Van Waring gave him. winning short film We Will Never Be ing on from the young Dutch “She was a powerhouse of interest Royals, about a brother and sister director’s acclaimed shorts for me.” The fact that she didn’t look living in youth care, moving from Even Cowboys Get To Cry (2013), anything like the Chloe he had foster homes to youth prison and A Hole In My Heart (2015) and originally envisaged didn’t put him looking desperately for a place in We Will Never Be Royals (2015). off in the slightest. “The energy she society. gave was spot on.” In Paradise Drifters, supported by “Even though all the ingredients for De Oversteek scheme and Production Bilal Wahib had had a minor part in a horrible life were present, these Incentive, three young people from one of the director’s shorts. “In real kids had a glance in their eyes, had different but equally tough back­ life, he has an extraordinary­ energy,” a fighting spirit in their way of talking grounds are thrown together. Peijnenburg says of the actor whose and behaving,” the director says of Lorenzo (Jonas Smulders), Yousef role calls for him to be withdrawn the defiance he saw continually (Bilal Wahib) and Chloe (Tamar van and introspective. “In our film, he during his extensive research into Waning) are outsiders on the margins has to play an introverted, suicidal alienated youth. “Whereas my of society, all “searching for character which I was really previous film was still set in connections, searching for love,” interested to see… all the energy institutions and under the flag of but are continually confronted with went into his eyes, his mind, and he society, this film starts off where that violence and rejection. was really good.” stops, when you are 18 and being dropped on the streets literally.” Peijnenburg chose his actors very The director gave the three leads carefully. “I think the casting of each time to get to know each other and As an adolescent himself, Peijnen­ film is almost the most crucial part to develop their characters. “I let burg came from a more comfortable of the process. I like to take time to them write letters to me with their background. “I was a skateboarder, find the right people.” thoughts.” I did a lot of filmmaking already back then, I did pictures. I was very Jonas Smulders had appeared in Peijnenburg did extensive research much on the creative spectrum.” Peijnenburg’s graduation short and for Paradise Drifters. “I’ve been No, he wasn’t a rebel himself but he is described by the director as working on this film for several has always been drawn to characters “a natural fit” for his role as the years,” he says. He visited like Chloe in his film who have the charismatic Lorenzo. Tamar van numerous child protection homes energy to fight back, even when every­ Waning was discovered in less and Salvation Army hostels where thing seems pitched against them.

4 Berlin Generation 14plus and IFFR Limelight Paradise Drifters Mees Peijnenburg

“I think the casting of each film is almost the most crucial part of the process”

Paradise Drifters Director & script: Mees Peijnenburg Production: Pupkin Film Sales: Orange Studio

5 Berlin Competition Berlin Alexanderplatz Burhan Qurbani­

“We really get into the head of an illegal refugee and experience what it is like to arrive in Europe and how to survive”

Berlin Alexanderplatz Director: Burhan Qurbani Script: Burhan Qurbani, Martin Behnke Production: Sommerhaus (DE) Co-production: Lemming Film (NL) Sales: Beta Cinema

6 Berlin Competition Berlin Alexanderplatz Burhan Qurbani­ Repurposing a classic

Leontine Petit 2016. “We really get into the head of co-produce with these really out­ an illegal refugee and experience standing directors (like Burhan what it is like to arrive in Europe and ­Qurbani), I feel almost honoured how to survive.” that we can be part of such projects.”

Lemming had been following the The Lemming boss adds that it is project from the outset. The film rare for projects on the scale of had a relatively high budget, around Berlin Alexanderplatz to be made in

© Elsbeth Struijk van Bergen €5 million. Although considerable The Netherlands. The advantages of support was available in Germany being involved are self-evident: Geoffrey Macnab talks to Leontine itself, Sommerhaus eventually Dutch technicians get to show their Petit, Dutch co-producer of Berlin decided to make it as a co-pro and to talent and work on bigger European Alexanderplatz. use support from Eurimages, with films while Petit and her team get to Lemming as a minority co-producer. extend their network. Alfred Döblin’s ‘Berlin Alexander­ platz’ (1929) is a classic modernist “I agreed that this is definitely a “For us to be part of these projects novel from the Weimar era, telling Eurimages kind of project, both also means to be on the radar of the the story of an ordinary man, Franz from the type of director and the sub­ sales agents,” Petit highlights one Biberkopf, trying to stay afloat in a ject matter. It is about Europe and obvious benefit for Lemming when society riven by corruption, violence about the way we deal with migrants.” it comes to selling their own projects and political prejudice. The hero, in the international marketplace. Francis, wants to be a good man and Because of the high profile films to live honestly but circumstances “Honoured that we can which the company has co-produced, keep on getting in the way. be part of such projects” she has excellent relations with leading companies like Beta Cinema It was made into a mini-series by and Match Factory, who can advise Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1980. Petit and her team weren’t just Lemming and even handle their Now, a contemporary version, Berlin aboard as financial partners. They films in the marketplace. Alexanderplatz, directed by Afghan- made a strong creative contribution German auteur Burhan Qurbani,­ too. One of the main actors, Nils Thanks to the Production Incentive, produced by Sommerhaus Film­ ­Verkooijen, is Dutch. “I think he did Lemming can offer serious financial produktion and Lemming Film, an amazing job in a very important and creative support and will provide and sold by Beta Cinema, is part,” Petit says of Verkooijen, who between 10 and 20% of the overall screening in Berlinale competition. plays a transgender character. Dutch budgets. That is why top inter­ It is supported by the Film Fund and technicians were involved in every­ national filmmakers like Yorgos Production Incentive. thing from the sound on set to the Lanthimos, Burhan Qurbani, Franka grading, sound design and the mix. Potente and Lucrecia Martel are so “It’s a different approach on Alfred keen to work with them. Döblin’s novel, told in the present “They’re always different,” is how day from the perspective of Petit (who won the European Co-­ “It is incredibly important that we a refugee,” Leontine Petit (Lemming production Award – Prix Eurimages have the Incentive,” Petit says of the Film) says of Qurbani’s 3-hour award in 2016) reflects on her huge soft money scheme which has helped re-imagining of the story, which she range of different projects over the put the Dutch at the heart of Euro­ boarded after its pitch at CineMart last two decades. “But if we can pean and international filmmaking.­

7 Minority co-productions in Berlin For co-pro, see Holland

cultural clashes worldwide. It’s

© Samuel Lahu about normal people living in the shadow of a new global economic reality.” Its director “takes us deep into the lives and souls of these Chinese and African­ characters.”

The Post-production Award, given by The Netherlands Film Fund, the Hubert Bals Fund, and The Nether­ lands Post Production Alliance, ­enabled Keplerfilm to come on board. Sound and colour grading were ­completed in The Netherlands.

Days Of Cannibalism Dutch outfit Topkapi was introduced to Siamak Etemadi’s Pari by its Geoffrey Macnab checks out “Days of Cannibalism is produced by Greek producer, Konstantinos the Dutch angle of some of Berlin a dear producer friend, so when the Kontovrakis, who together with 2020’s notable titles. project won the Dutch Post-Produc­ Giorgos Karnavas runs leading tion Award, there was suddenly this Greek production and sales outfit Underlining The Netherlands’ rising wonderful opportunity to jump in status as a co-production partner, and join on the ride,” Derk-Jan the Berlinale this year has a number ­Warrink of Keplerfilm says of the of films in its programme which project. He first became aware of the were made with Dutch backing. film when it was selected for the ­L’Atelier in Cannes. He has worked Berlin-bound titles with an orange several times before with the French tint include Afghan-German director co-producer KinoElektron, and Burhan Qurbani’s Berlin Alexander­ ­relished the chance to do so again. platz in main competition (see page 6), Teboho Edkins’ Lesotho-set “It’s an exploration of the barriers Pari Days of Cannibalism and Iranian- that Chinese face in Africa, and born Siamak Etemadi’s Pari, both in ­Africans in China,” Warrink explains Heretic (behind such films as Panorama; Uruguyan director­ Alex what drew him to the project. He was Wasted Youth and The Harvesters). Piperno’s magical realist­ story intrigued by the “genre bending” The film is supported by the Film Window Boy Would Also Like To Have way director Teboho Edkins used Fund and Production Incentive. A Submarine in Berlinale Forum and fictional elements in a documentary Brazilian director­ Ana Vaz’s and by the sharpness of his insights “I was intrigued by the fact that the Apiyemiyekî? in Forum Expanded. about the experiences of those living origin of the story is Iranian,” in both Lesotho and Guangzhou. Topkapi’s Frans van Gestel In some cases, the Dutch producers remembers of what drew him to the have been involved in these projects Days Of Cannibalism, he says, has subject. In the film, an Iranian for many years. “very universal insights about student in Greece goes missing.

Days of Cannibalism Director & Pari Director & script: Siamak Etemadi script: Teboho Edkins Production: Production: Heretic (GR) Co-production: Topkapi Kinoelektron (FR) Co-production: Films (NL), Le Bureau (FR), The Chouchkov Keplerfilm (NL), Day Zero Films (SA) Brothers (BU) Sales: Heretic Outreach 8 Days of Cannibalism Teboho Edkins Pari Siamak Etemadi Window Boy Would Also Like to Have a Submarine Alex Piperno For co-pro, see Holland Apiyemiyekî? Ana Vaz

Brazilian director Ana Vaz’s Apiyemiyekî? is screening in Berlin fresh from its appearance in the Tiger Short Film Competition at International Film Festival Rotter­ dam. For Dutch producers De Productie, this is a chance to work with a highly regarded­ artist and filmmaker on a short film that looks Window Boy Would Also Like to Have a Submarine bound to get wide festival­ exposure.

The student’s parents, devout way that leads into an apartment far Vaz makes use of an archive of Muslims, search for their son but away in Montevideo. New Dutch drawings from the Waimiri- they are adrift in a western culture sales company Square Eyes picked Atroari, an indigenous people from entirely alien to them. “That’s a good up the film just before Berlin. the Brazilian Amazon who use their idea for a film,” the Topkapi boss pictures to make sense of their own says of the premise.­ The fact that “Director Alex Piperno and I were devastation and suffering during the there was an established producer actually introduced by Laurette time of the military dictatorship like Kontovrakis behind it persuaded Schillings from Topkapi Films,” says “We didn’t know anything about the the Dutch company­ to board the Baldr’s Frank Hoeve of the film genocide and napalm situation in project, which had a strong script which had Netherlands Film Fund and an obviously talented director. and Hubert Bals Fund Co-production Scheme (NFF+HBF) support. As on Berlin Alexanderplatz, the “She was not able to co-produce the Dutch provided much of the sound film and suggested to him to contact expertise (this is a field in which the me. I immediately saw the original country currently excels) while also approach by Alex. It is a very unique working extensively on the post- film about human movement and production. “We really built a strong solitude, moving through relation with Siamak, the director. distinct physical and geographical We spoke about the sound, we spoke spaces as seen through the eyes of about the music and also about the a young sailor.” Piperno was writing, Apiyemiyekî? editing. It is more than just a service directing, producing and editing. or helping with the financial part. Hoeve praises the filmmaker as “very Brazil. was really touched by this sub­ It is a sincere co-production,” Van professional and very open to his ject,” says De Productie’s Annemiek Gestel says. ­various co-producers.” van Gorp. She came on board as co-producer late on, in the post- Writer-director Piperno’s Window Boy On Window Boy, the VFX was done in production phase, and talks about Would Also Like To Have A ­Submarine The Netherlands while the mix was the “beautiful and cinematic way” in has one of the most distinctive­ (and handled by Vincent Sinceretti at Posta which Vaz tackled the delicate sub­ longest) titles of any film in Berlin Amsterdam. Hoeve describes features ject matter. Now, De Productie hope this year. It also has one of the more like Window Boy as “a great oppor­ to work with their Brazilian partners intriguing storylines: on board tunity for us as producers and Dutch again, on one of their own films a cruise ship, a sailor discovers a hall­ talent to work on unique projects.”­ which they hope to shoot in Brazil.

Window Boy Would Also Like to Have a Submarine (Chico ventana también Apiyemiyekî? Director & script: Ana Vaz quisiera tener un submarino) Director & script: Alex Piperno Production: Production: Spectre Productions (FR), Stenar La Pobladora Cine (UY) Co-production: BALDR Film (NL), Pelícano (AR), Projects (PT), Ana Vaz Co-production: De Desvia (BR), Cinematográfica (PH) Sales: Square Eyes Productie (NL) Sales: La Fabrique Phantom 9 Dutch shorts to Berlin

Two Dutch shorts are selected for Berlin Generation Kplus, and a Dutch minority co-production for Berlinale Shorts section.

Marit Weerheijm © Miriam Guttman

Marit Weerheijm’s En Route is a film En Route made from a child’s perspective dealing with a major social never know what you’re going to get, And what next for Weerheim? problem. Without giving away any but when it happens, when they “After writing En Route I realized of the plot, poverty and hunger lie at deliver, it can be the truest thing that I had written that script from the root of this very moving tale of you’ve seen in a long time.” my gut feeling. I really loved writing a family’s journey through a city. it, but I also felt like I didn’t have The film is supported by KORT! Weerheijm came to prominence in all the knowledge and the tools to (Film Fund, CoBO fund, NTR and 2016 with her brilliant short When yet write a feature film,” she NPO Fund). Grey is a Colour, produced by comments. partner Loes Komen for their joint “When you approach such difficult company Room for Film, which won “These past six months I’ve been subjects and themes from the point a Student Oscar in 2017. Has her thinking a lot about how I want to of view of a young child, we might style evolved since then? “I don’t keep learning as a director. I did an see things differently. It definitely know if it has changed much [but] internship at the International adds some lightness to the stories,” I do think it evolved because of Theatre Amsterdam to see how comments director Weerheijm. more experience. En route has a few directors in theatre have weeks to “I think it’s beautiful that children similarities with When Grey is work through a script with the don’t know everything about this a Colour. They both tell the story of actors. That is something that world, but they do want to know a young girl, a child’s perspective, I sometimes miss in making films, everything about it. That is the same and they both tell stories about time to rehearse, time to get to curiosity that makes a filmmaker. difficult subjects, taboos even. know the actors and for them to get What was new for me was writing to know their characters. Right “For me, this makes children the the script all by myself. The result now, I am planning to learn more best main characters because they was that I had complete flexibility about writing. Meanwhile, I’m can translate all these questions on set, especially with dialogue. working on a few ideas for feature that I have about the world into I had written dialogue, but I also did films and I’m working on a very a storyline, into a film. Plus, I love improvisations and that worked short film with an experimental working with children on set. You really well with the kids.” twist.”

En Route Director & script: Marit Weertheijm Production: Room for Film

10 En Route Marit Weertheijm Under the Skin Emma Branderhorst A Demonstration Sasha Litvintseva & Beny Wagner

that she can use to make a film about anything she chooses. She will therefore partner up with Family Affair Films to make another youth-oriented short, this time about “teenage lying, creating a different version of reality and seeing how far they can go with it.”

The UK/Dutch/German co-pro documentary short A Demonstration, world-premiering in Berlinale Under the Skin Shorts is described as a “monster film with no monsters” and inspired

Emma Branderhorst a lot of competition. I always thought by “the existence of taxonomies of I was being bullied, I always thought monsters at the heart of Early these are my friends. What is this? Modern European science, Is it normal? Where does it come exploring and reinterpreting our from?” way of seeing the natural world that is almost impossible to imagine Branderhorst later revisited her from today’s vantage point.” friends to interview them about that period in their lives. “All the girls The film is directed by Sasha agreed that was a very tough time Litvintseva and Beny Wagner, and Emma Branderhorst’s Under the for them, instead of looking back is co-produced by Daan Milius of Skin is her graduation film from with nice memories I thought I was Dutch production outfit Video University of the Arts in Utrecht, the only one… We were all having Power. and tells the story of Keesje, a laugh but on the other side we a 15-year old introvert. She and her were really sad and we couldn’t be “Rather than narrate a distant friends, Lize and Dunja, swim ourselves in the group. It’s called history, we have tried to create a together in a synchronized swim­ girl venom.” journey for our viewers to feel with ming team. From the outside it all their entire sensory apparatus,” looks like the perfect friendship, but The director believes that syn­chro­ comments Wagner. “We designed beneath the surface hide continuous nised swimming is the perfect the film as a series of rhythmic tensions between the girls… metaphor to express this notion of intensities, to be experienced through girl venom. “The thing is, above the the whole body. We hope that our “I am fascinated by youth problems,” water it is beautiful but when you viewers approach the film without comments Branderhorst. “When I look under the surface you see all too many preconceived ideas of was younger in high school I was in the ugly mistakes they make.” what a film should be and allow a group of ten girls and there was themselves to be guided by their always a lot of tension between us. Branderhorst has recently been intuition in a way that allows for new We were friends but everyone was awarded a €50,000 Wild Card grant connections to be made between pushing each other down, there was from the Netherlands Film Fund images, sounds and movement.”

Under the Skin Director & script: Emma Branderhorst Production: HKU-Eva Schaaf, Patou den Cate

11 D for dazzling (and Dutch) New talent from Holland in Berlin

Five new and diverse talents from The Netherlands talk about their selection for the prestigious Berlinale Talents programme 2020.

Director Noël Loozen is certain about what he wants to get out of Berlinale Talents, a clear perspective on the transition from shorts to features.

“I’m exploring how to stay true to my visual style and artistic DNA, whilst experimenting to see how they translate best into the longer format,” he underlines. “A feature film presents a different context than a short film. Ultimately,I hope Noël Loozen Christine Houbiers to investigate my established visual language and form in relation to 2020, having attended many of the fiction storytelling and vise versa. storytelling and drama. This programmed events in Berlin last I’m not scared of changing the symbiosis is what currently fascinates year, following the Generation storytelling, like in a documentary. me the most, and I’m really excited selection of My Extraordinary Summer By doing both, I feel I can get more to utilise the Berlinale Talents with Tess, which she edited. out of the material.” platform to dive deeper into this.” “It was the first time I edited an Netherlands-based Turkish actress He comments how working within international co-production and Ece Yüksel studied at HKU in the mediums of film and photo­ I really enjoyed working with the Utrecht where she “realized the graphy helps elevate his craft to German co-producers, sound importance and fun of diversity in higher levels of proficiency, “and it designer and composer. I hope to approaches to acting. Therefore [in challenges me as a storyteller”. meet new people from different Berlin], I’m mostly looking forward He adds: “Moving into my first countries that inspire me and to meet, collaborate with and learn feature film (entitled Crapule for maybe I can work with them in the from the great diversity of Amsterdam-based Halal), after future,” she comments. “This year’s colleagues worldwide. With these having worked on short films, music topic is about Collectives. At the experiences I hope to broaden my videos, commercials and photo­ moment I’m thinking of starting skillset and take further steps in my graphy, forces me to tie all this a collective together with two female career internationally.” experience together. I think my friends, a screenwriter and hybrid approach has given me a director. I hope to learn what’s the Yüksel notes how her experience on a strong sense of my own visual and best way to do this.” Emin Alper’s A Tale of Three Sisters, aesthetic language, and a confidence which was shot in Eastern Turkey in in crafting my own little worlds.” “I’m proud of the fact that I have 2017, was “life-changing” for her, been able to edit documentaries as and for which she was awarded Best Editor Christine Houbiers has a head well as fiction films… When I edit Actress prizes at the International start on her fellow Dutch Talents in documentaries, I use techniques of Istanbul Film Festival and the

12 New talent from Holland in Berlin

Ece Yüksel Wouter Jansen Rogier Kramer

Batumi Inter­national Art-House mainstream films I hope to find out Producer Rogier Kramer of Dutch Film Festival. more about the best strategies to Mountain Film fully expects a very put these in the market and get full week of intense meetings in “During the rehearsal period and them in front of audiences,” he Berlin with the great and the the shooting process, I had the stresses. “Hopefully I can exchange good of the international film chance to experience an inspiring ideas and experiences with the community. “I hope to learn more and deep character which gave me other sales agents in Talents as well about the international market the space to create, guided by our as people attending the festival. And and different co-production great director. We were all very of course I just want to meet more structures, strategies and methods proud that our movie achieved new people, extend my network and from experts and other Berlinale many successes starting with hopefully discover some great new Talents.” premiering at the 69th Berlinale films.” competition, followed by many In 2019 Kramer became co-owner festivals all over the world.” “I have been able to work with a lot of his company. “That’s a really of young talented directors and big achievement for me because Sales agent Wouter Jansen of Square introduce them to the international I’ve always wanted to have my Eyes (launched at IFFR 2020 out of market with their short films where own production company. As owner his previous company Some Shorts) they were also really well received; I’m in full control over my own goals is eyeing up the long-term transition directors like Guido Hendrikx, Ena and choices about what I want to into features sales, and believes Sendijarevic and Mees Peijnenburg, produce and who I want to work Berlinale Talents, located adjacent to name a few, that have all gone on with. This gives me the opportunity to arguably the calendar’s most to make strong debuts,” he adds. to develop myself as a producer important film market, will help “Hopefully with Square Eyes I will even faster. facilitate that. “I’m still relatively be able to continue this success and new to the world of feature sales, also build a strong slate of feature “Therefore I would also love to learn and with my focus on more non- films.” more about entrepreneurship.”

13 IFFR Tiger Competition Drama Girl Vincent Boy Kars

“She is clever and just as curious about the life/art dichotomy that she is experiencing”

Drama Girl Director: Vincent Boy Kars Script: Jolein Laarman Production: Halal Docs

14 Drama out of a crisis

Vincent Boy Kars boyfriend is played by established differences between her as a perfor­ Dutch talent Jonas Mulders. mer and her as herself, and what is real and what is fake in her perfor­ Initially Leyla is given latitude to mance. She is interested as a maker advise on how her parents/boyfriend in the same questions that I am.” should be portrayed, but once we get into the action, she must react to There is a core scene in the film (and act within) the severe constraints where Leyla and Mulders, looking that the script imposes, and the like a pair of beautiful aliens with emotional grenades that Kars matching cropped hair and dressed In IFFR Tiger Competition continually lobs her way. in garish colours, contemplate their selection Drama Girl, Dutch lives while sitting on the bonnet of director Vincent Boy Kars As a viewing experience, this is in a car. For Kars, the gods were smiling rewrites the life story of a young equal part fascinating, moving, at that moment as the weather woman, and then asks the psychologically­ challenging and performs a complete volte face, same woman to play herself in emotionally wrenching as she is pouring down one moment to bright its retelling on screen. forced to apply her performance sunshine the next (as if directed), skills to a fictionalised,­ and therefore and the actors don’t miss a beat. It all started with a 16-hour interview at times unrecognisable, version of “That scene by the car, you cannot do in the summer of 2018 when Leyla de her own life story. that again. I always wanted to see Muynck told director Kars everything Leyla’s first reaction on everything, about her life, and that of her parents And of course, all this is cinematic so 80% of the film was one-takes. even before she was born. This text gold dust for director Kars. “The They knew to continue acting through formed the basis of the story that the moments when she is struggling, the scene.” director set out to retell, but on his those are the moments for me that terms and with little by way of are the most exciting. She is in the The film, to be released in The Nether­ further input from Leyla. construct of a fiction scene, but she lands by Periscoop Film, is located in is not acting, she is. You have Rotterdam which enabled Kars to The film, which received Film Fund a fiction scene with an actor but the find fascinating interiors and selective support and a KNF Award main character is her, and pulling exteriors (he scouted on his bike), Special Mention at IFFR, concentrates real emotions out of herself. And she and the electronic music score by on the past five years of Leyla’s life, was also in real life struggling with Beau Zwart is mesmerising. when she has to deal with the death her memory [of events]. The struggle of her father, falling in and out of was real… The last thing I wanted Leyla performs her own transforma­­ love, and arguments with her mother. was a polished performance.” tion when she asks Mulders to crop her long curly hair on camera, a pro­ Leyla is not an actress (rather, Not that Leyla is any way unaware that cess that always seems the ultimate­ a skilled freeform dancer) but her she is part of an experiment. She is sacrifice for an actor. “But that was onscreen parents are powerhouse clever and just as curious about the real,” comments Kars. “She cut her Dutch thespians Pierre Bokma and life/art dichotomy that she is hair in real life two days after her Elsie de Brauw, whom we see intro­ experiencing. “That is the reason father passed away, so it was part of duced to Leyla on set for the first why I chose to work with her. She is her story. A lot of things in the film you time, to her rising consternation and a dancer and a performer, but as an think are fictionalised, but a lot more bemusement. Likewise, her onscreen artist she is also interested in the things are not.” Nick Cunningham

15 IFFR Tiger Competition Creature comforts Kala Azar Janis Rafa

Janis Rafa moments, for example a scene Animals, both dead and alive, feature showing a brass band playing their prominently in the film. Rafa worked instruments in the middle of a huge closely with a taxidermist and artist chicken factory or of an elderly who helped her collect and preserve woman, naked in the bath with a big, the carcasses of the dead animals. shaggy dog which she takes care to The dogs who appear are “semi- wash thoroughly. trained” but she generally allowed them to run free.

© Michael Aust The title Kala Azar refers to a real ­disease, also known as Canine Sound design is crucial to Kala Azar. Janis Rafa’s debut feature Kala Leishmaniasis, which killed many “We knew from the start that this Azar (which screened in IFFR animals in Mediterranean countries was a film with very little dialogue. Tiger Competition and is sold in the 1990s. Rafa, born in 1984, We tried to approach it with Marc internationally by Heretic Out­ grew up during this period. She has [Lizier, the sound designer] in a reach) was shot on the outskirts­ vivid memories of when the disease minimal­ way that respected natural of Athens, “in the grey zones of hit Greece. The locals didn’t have sounds, but gives another story to the city,” as the director puts it. a sentimental attitude toward pets. the one the camera gives.” There is ­Medicine to counter the disease was a creative tension between sound The film, supported by De Verbeel­ding expensive and many animals were and cinematography. We hear dogs scheme (Film Fund and Mondriaan simply left to rot and die. that we don’t see. The sounds adds Fund), is set in an in-between world, ­“elements which have escaped the neither industrial nor rural. Roaming Her father (who appears in the film) image.” around the area in a car is a couple is a geologist and her mother is an (played by Penelope Tsilika and artist. Both are animal lovers. “I came Rafa may have shot the film in Dimitris Lalos) with a very strange from a family that had many dogs ­Athens but she has very strong Dutch job. They collect deceased pets, which came as strays from the streets.” connections. Her producers were taking their carcasses to the crema­ Digna Sinke’s SNG Film. She studied torium where they are burned. There may be hints of her childhood at the Rijksakademie and her gallery Penelope and Dimitris also gather experience in the film but the story­ is in Amsterdam. Her first major solo up roadkill. telling is oblique. Rafa was determined exhibition was in Utrecht. The artist/ to avoid direct biographical details. director splits her time between Rafa deliberately withholds infor­ She places heavy demands on her Greece, where her family is based, mation both about the couple and two leads, a couple with a ­relation­ and The Netherlands, where most of the world they live in. There are no ship so intense it risks becoming her work originates. What’s more, specific references to the period in oppressive. They behave in as Gusto came on board early as the which the film is taking place or its instinctive­ a way as the animals they Dutch distributor. location. We’re told little about where tend. The actors had never met before. the couple come from or how they “I cast them separately and they Having finished Kala Azar, Rafa is met. Dialogue is kept to a minimum. prepared separately. Only a few days weighing up options as to what she before shooting, they got together. will do next. “I am preparing some The tone here is similar to that in the We even started shooting with the video pieces. I don’t have a confirmed “Requiem Series,” the director’s video intimate scenes but they were very exhibition yet… and, of course, in the art projects exploring decay and open in allowing me to play with back of my mind is the possibility of death. The film has its surrealistic their bodies, with their presence.” another feature!” Geoffrey­ Macnab

16 IFFR Tiger Competition Kala Azar Janis Rafa

They behave in as instinctive­ a way as the animals they tend

Kala Azar Director & script: Janis Rafa Production: SNG Film (NL) - Digna Sinke Co-production: Heretic (GR) Sales: Heretic Outreach

17 Dutch minority co-productions in IFFR Tiger Competition Nasir Arun Karthick Piece of the Tiger La Fortaleza Jorge Thielen Armand

Two of the films in IFFR Tiger Competition had Dutch minority support, self-taught Arun Karthick’s award-winning Nasir (Rinkel Film) and La Fortaleza (Jorge Thielen Armand, co-produced by Viking Film).

Arun Karthick

Nasir

needs to be heard and what made to do post and the other half was Described by the jury as “a moving me decide to say ‘yes’ was that, first sent to India to help with production letter to and from the oppressed of all, it is a very important story but support,” Selen points out. Muslim minority in Mother India,” told in an original and fresh way,” Tiger competitor Nasir picked up points out Selen. “As much as it is “This kind of HBF support enables the NETPAC Award for best Asian a story about how the society in you to make daring choices, for film premiering at IFFR. the South of India suppresses parts example the script for the 90-min of the community it is told in a film was just 35 pages,” he In the film, Nasir is a gentle man different manner to, for example, continues, “whereas a regular who suffers a hard life but remains our previous film about refugees minority co-production is restricted optimistic in the face of terrible (Rafael, Ben Sombogaart) or Paula to many conditions. The director difficulties, all the time writing love van der Oest’s film about a terrible has to have a proven track record letters to his wife. Eventually, miscarriage of justice (Accused).” with previous A-fest selections, and however, he wonders whether he reciprocity is kind of demanded. would be better off as a migrant The project received €50,000 from These conditions tend to rule out labourer in Abu Dhabi. the NFF+HBF Co-production projects that I really believe need to Scheme. Sound post, grading and be supported.” Rinkel Film CEO Reinier Selen deliveries were completed in The credits his colleague Ibo Karatay Netherlands. “And from the start Ibo was very with discovering the project (as well much involved with the script as Karthick’s undoubted talent) at “The NFF+HBF support can be spent development of the project. He did CineMart in 2017, and monitoring in the majority country (up to 50%) a lot of script sessions and I think it closely all the way through the as the euro goes a lot further in the film turned out so well because production process. India than it does in Holland. of that involvement. It is very The film’s budget was 160,000 euros, uncommon that from a minority “Ibo realised that Karthick’s is a very which meant the HBF support was position you are able time-wise to distinctive and specific voice that around 33% of that, so we used half be involved at that level.”

Nasir Director & script: Arun Karthick Production: Stray Factory (IN) Co-production: Rinkel Film (NL), Magic Hours Films (IN), Harman Ventures (IN), Uncombed Buddha (IN), Cent Percent Films (IN)

18 Dutch minority co-productions in IFFR Tiger Competition Nasir Arun Karthick La Fortaleza Jorge Thielen Armand

La Fortaleza

Jorge Thielen Armand Dutch co-producer Marleen Slot “But despite that it was not just explains her co-pro rationale. a financial co-operation but also “I do it all based on guts and on a true co-production,” she taste, and I value the previous work underlines. “They really involved of the director a lot.” me in the entire process and I acted like a sparring partner for When she saw Armand’s previous producers Manon Ardisson and La Soledad she was deeply Rodrigo Michelangeli.” impressed, and was further excited by the director’s desire to cast “Always when I am a minority In Jorge Thielen Armand’s La his own father in the lead of La co-production partner I try to Fortaleza, Roque, who is just old Fortaleza. “That was immediately interfere as little as possible enough for a midlife crisis, has something I found so interesting because I think it is very wrecked his mother’s car. He blames and also such a risk. I really felt like important that the main producer the chaos in Venezuela, but his it could go both ways. It could be can really take the lead, and parents don’t share this view, and really good or a big mistake, but I only give my opinion when it throw him out of their house. I like it when directors take those is really requested or when I think To battle his demons, and the drink, types of risk.” ‘oh this is really going in the he travels into the southern jungle wrong direction’, but that was to renovate a cabin he built there in The project was rejected for definitely not the case with this happier times. He meets old Hubert Bals support but was given film. It was a really nice friends, now captivated by the gold the nod by the World Cinema Fund collaboration and I think the Tiger rush. But his desire for redemption Europe after Slot submitted her Competition was the best place conflates with an increasingly application. There was no to go with this film,” Slot concludes. violent environment… requirement for any Dutch spend. Nick Cunningham

La Fortaleza Director: Jorge Thielen Armand Script: Jorge Thielen Armand, Rodrigo Michelangeli Production: La Faena Films (VE) Co-production: Viking Film (NL), Mutokino (CO), In Vivo Films (FR) Sales: Reel Suspects

19 IFFR Limelight Journey into the past Farewell Paradise Sonja Wyss

Sonja Wyss successful and cool, they liked him Older sister Kathy is a tour de force, as well. This was the source of a firebrand in her youth, pregnant at adoring Dorine’s ire, and ultimately 13 (or maybe 14 or 15, opinions the reason she hot-footed it to differ), her father’s favourite and Switzerland, where both originally a girl who, for many years, could not came from. abide her mother. Christine is contemplative, sometimes playful, But all is not well when they arrive but she is hurt that her father in Europe, and Dorine is forced to suddenly disappeared out of her farm out the children to other life. Bettina, often tearful in the film, Sonja Wyss’ Farewell Paradise families as she does not have the was overcome by the experience is a tale half a century in the means to upkeep the household. having had to confront her past. ­telling, of a woman’s decision to It is a trauma (not always recognised remove herself and four daughters as such at the time) which informs Meanwhile, the father is blunt, from a warm paradise island to the future development of the girls, although the reasons for his a cold and, initially at least, and of Dorine herself… behaviour are expressed clearly. hostile Switzerland. He didn’t find his wife sexy. The starting point in this cathartic After they had sex for the first time, In Farewell Paradise, supported by analysis – for that is what the film he felt compelled to get married the Film Fund and Production becomes for all concerned – is a – the 1960s were different times. Incentive, nobody dies and the fantastic 1960s photograph of Dorine His heart wasn’t in the marriage, world doesn’t come to a shuddering and the girls walking towards the although he wanted it to be, he says. halt. The documentary tells a small plane that will take them away. story that affects few others than the Mother Dorine is ultimately a family members featured in it. Sitting in a blank studio, Ueli, survivor who, in later life, discovers And in cinematic terms it comprises Dorine and then each daughter take sexual liberation, forges a career in little other than a series of talking turns over many days to tell their journalism, and rediscovers her heads reacting to an off-screen sides of the story, to laugh, to innate sense of musicality. director/questioner, who then turns complain or to remonstrate, surprised the camera on herself. by the new information they are And Wyss? How does she assess taking in but also unburdening­ them­ the experience? “I am the analytical Despite these seeming limitations, selves of years of hurt and miscompre­­ one in the family. My interest was the film is riveting in its dissection hension, all the time inexorably to learn and understand the of a family feud, its slow revelation drawn towards a point of acceptance motivations my parents decisions of detail and in the disparity evident and maybe even reconciliation. were based on. Decisions that were within each family member’s so drastic to us, their children. recollection of events. “We are a very open family, we talk The next step was to elaborate on about everything, but we had never how the consequences of the Back in the 1960s father Ueli and spoken about this… these were divorce of our parents had mother Dorine lived the dream life secrets that we never spoke of,” influenced and formed me and my on the Bahamas with their four comments director Wyss. “There sisters and how it effects the next young daughters. The problem was were things that I never heard and generation, our own children. that Ueli had an eye for the ladies, my sisters had opinions and view­ Our past is working through the and given that he was dashing, points very different from mine.” generations like radioactivity does.”

20 IFFR Limelight Farewell Paradise Sonja Wyss

“We are a very open family, we talk about everything, but we had never spoken about this”

Farewell Paradise Director & script: Sonja Wyss Production: Basalt Film (NL) Co-production: EO/IKON (NL)

21 IFFR Limelight Going for Gold Gold Rogier Hesp

They were looking for someone who who yelled at their kids and made would not only be able to look them cry whenever­ they didn’t win. credible, vaulting and performing somersaults, but who could carry off Gold was inspired by an article the the dramatic scenes too. In the film, writer-director read about an athlete Timo has a fraught relationship with who was eventually murdered by his father, a former gymnast now his father. “That really triggered wheelchair-bound. He also has my vision on the way we look at Rogier Hesp strong and complicated feelings retrieving success,” he says. towards the female physiotherapist. Rogier Hesp’s Gold (which “I haven’t seen any sports movie world-premiered in IFFR Hesp stresses how he was where you see the downside. It’s Limelight) may be set in the “immediately sold” when he found always the same story of the guy who world of competitive gymnastics his lead actor, David Wristers, wins and wins, then he loses, then but its writer-director says the a former Dutch junior champion he starts training more and he wins same story could be told against with a boyish face but a very – and he is happy about it,” the backcloth of any sport in muscular body. “He looks like a man Hesp sums up the trajectory of which children are pushed too but he’s really still just an adolescent the typical upbeat story of triumph hard toward success by their boy – he’s like a little kid in a grown- told on screen. parents, writes Geoffrey Macnab. up’s body,” the director notes of the qualities which made Wristers the What about his own background? When Hesp conceived the film, perfect fit. It helped, too, that the Hesp says that his surgeon father, supported by De Oversteek scheme gymnast turned actor was such an unlike the one depicted in the film, and Production Incentive, he enigmatic presence on camera. always encouraged him and told wanted an actor to play the young When you looked at him, you could him to choose his own path. gymnast hero, Timo, who is getting never tell exactly what he was ready to compete in the world thinking, Hesp notes. Gold (which will be released in championships. He thought he The Netherlands in March by would give the actor six months to The director kept on telling Wristers September Films) may be Hesp’s prepare. not to play the part but to be the debut feature but he is an experienced part. The script was adapted to fit director of commercials. However, the director was quickly his personality and technique as “The advantage of working in advised that this wouldn’t work at a gymnast, “just so it felt more advertising is that you spend a lot of all. Gymnasts spend a decade or natural for him.” time on set. Even if it is 30 seconds more trying to reach the top of their or 40 seconds, you still have to bring sport. They have skills which no Unlike the character he plays, that emotion on screen,” he says. actor, however dedicated, can pick up Wristers has “nice parents.” in a few weeks or even after months However, during his time on the Shooting on Gold went very of practice. “I knew then I had to go circuit, he had seen plenty of pushy smoothly. “The only thing we were and search for a real gymnast.” and ruthless mums and dads, scared of was what if David falls?” driving their kids far too hard. the director remembers. He pushed Hesp and his casting director there­ “You can see them (these parents) Writers hard, but thankfully the fore approached all the leading sitting on the sidelines,” Wristers gymnast actor was always able to

gymnast schools in The Netherlands.­ told him. These were the parents land on both feet. © Myrthe Mosterman

22 IFFR Limelight Gold Rogier Hesp

Gold (Goud) Director: Rogier Hesp Script: Anne Hofhuis Production: BALDR Film

23 IFFR Perspectives Dreamlife Melvin Moti Dual perspectives Leonie, Actress and Spy Annette Apon

Their subjects may be radically © Melvin Moti different but two Dutch films selected for IFFR Perspectives tell the lives of two extraordinary characters, the French caver Michel Siffre and the actress- turned-spy Leonie Brandt.

Just over a decade ago, video artist/ filmmaker Melvin Moti read an article in Cabinet magazine about a French “speleologist” (a cave expert) called Michel Siffre who had spent two months living in a cave. The experience/ordeal allowed Siffre to chart the physical and psycho­ logical changes that you experience when you are exposed to such Dreamlife subterranean hardships. “The main story is definitely based and Hans de Wolf. Windmill Films “At the time, I was making a film on his expeditions but I took it in Amsterdam will be handling the about visual deprivation and I was into my own hands. It is hugely Benelux distribution. Alongside the also researching self-experiment­ fictionalised,” the director says of cinema screenings, the film will also ation,” Moti, whose debut narrative the version of Siffre’s tale. be seen in art galleries. The cast is feature Dreamlife, supported by headlined by the famously intense De Verbeelding scheme (Film Fund Moti’s research was thoroughgoing. Belgian actor, Sam Louwyck, known and Mondriaan Fund), premiered He spent a lot of time in caves. for his work in Flemish classics like in IFFR Perspectives. He was Ask him what it is like spending Ex Drummer and Bullhead. fascinated by the article. He began prolonged periods underground and to read Siffre’s books and to look at he acknowledges that it is “very Louwyck has a background in dance his photographs. He found some­ intense” and can be disturbing. as well as acting, one reason why Moti thing innately cinematic in Siffre’s “You have to fight all kinds of was keen to cast him. “Since the film work. It also helped that the French anxieties. It’s a non-human world. is based on isolation, it means the scientist was so photogenic. Your brain tells you not to do things main character is by himself, with­ all the time. The access is very out any dialogue. That means you In Moti’s description, venturing into challenging. You have to walk uphill have to act physically – to interest a cave sounds akin to being buried for a long time and then crawl into the audience just with your body and alive. No, your mobile phone doesn’t very narrow spaces which are the way you do things,” Moti reflects. work. Time unfolds at a different sometimes just the width of your “He (Louwyck) could physically rhythm to the outer world. “You feel hip. You sometimes need to push communicate emotions without alien… if something falls on you, it is yourself through that.” any other actors to play (alongside)… over. You are a guest as a human it was a beautiful experiment to being in that completely non- The film was made through KeyFilm, transfer the act of acting into a biological environment.” the company run by Hanneke Niens location like the cave.”

Dreamlife Director & script: Melvin Moti Production: KeyFilm

24 IFFR Perspectives Dreamlife Melvin Moti Leonie, Actress and Spy Annette Apon

legendary Dutch actress Fien de la Mar (footage of whom is used in Leonie, Actress and Spy ). Apon further ramps up the dramatic story of Leonie by including other huge stars of the age, such as Asta Nielsen and Pola Negri.

photo features Francesca Bertiniin Asunta Spina She enthuses about Eye Film­ museum’s archive department, which she refers to as “marvellous, marvellous,” as it was very well organised in terms of subjects and themes, thus enabling her to piece Leonie, Actress and Spy together her film like a jigsaw puzzle. She was even able to source

Annette Apon (she was oriented more towards the very rare female prison footage stage than the screen) but as in all (from the German film Die weissen great spy stories, she is clever, Rosen von Ravensberg, 1919) to elusive and mysterious. What’s illustrate Leonie’s incarceration. more, very few photographs of her exist. “To write the script I had to know what material I could find, so for Filmmaker Annette Apon had months I was in the archive,” Apon previously packaged the life stresses. “That was the first part, story of Leonie as a fiction series for writing the script, and then it took Born in Germany in 1901, Leonie TV, before hitting upon an a long, long time to get people Brandt came to The Netherlands in ingenious way to tell the story in interested and make them believe it her teens where she became both an documentary form. Leonie, Actress is possible to become involved with actress and a double agent, working and Spy , made with Film Fund Leonie while seeing all these screen for the Dutch and German secret selective support, uses archive from stars, all these different women. services. A woman who could the Eye Filmmuseum that features It was a big deal to convince people obviously live off her wits, the contemporaneous sirens and divas that it was possible.” glamorous Leonie survived of the silver screen. We see the imprisonment in Ravenbrück (where great Dutch and European “What also drove this idea to use she was at one point sentenced to actresses from the early days of film fragments was that I knew death) before working for the Dutch cinema, and each of their scenes is Leonie was a cinema lover from the National Security Bureau after 1945. used to illustrate a passage, an 1920s on,” continues Apon. She was arrested again in 1950, adventure or an impression of “The films that I saw in the Eye accused of being a collaborator, but Leonie’s life. archive, maybe they were the films released for lack of evidence. that she had seen as well… and Apon was no stranger to working was psychologically influenced by Leonie may not be so well known with archive, having made Ik wil as she turned more and more to as an actress in The Netherlands gelukkig zijn 2016, about the espionage.”

Leonie, Actress and Spy (Leonie, Actrice en Spionne) Director & script: Annette Apon Production: SNG Film (NL) Co-production: NTR (NL)

25 IFFR RTM Porcelain Jenneke Boeijink

The director was determined to find someone young enough to act without­ self- consciousness

Porcelain (Porselein) Director: Jenneke Boeijink Script: Jenneke Boeijink, Thibaud Delpeut Production: New Amsterdam Film Company (NL) Co-production: Wrong Men (BE), Verdeoro (IT)

26 Decaying from within

In Porcelain, supported by the set in the sterile, affluent world of the Production Incentive, there is a family when they seem to be on top of stark contrast between the family’s the world. “The picture perfect world experiences in their apartment “in is cracking in part 2 and, in part 3, the sky in Rotterdam” and the much we are in this rough kind of nature.” more idyllic, natural world they later The sound editing also changes, encounter in the Italian countryside. shifting from urban and industrial Boeijink describes Porcelain as “a noise in the early scenes to natural Jenneke Boeijink modern dark fairy tale.” sounds in the rural Italian scenes.

Writer-director Jenneke Boeijink’s Boeijink set out to cast actors who The film screened in IFFR’s RTM Porcelain starts in spectacular weren’t immediately familiar to section after making its premiere in fashion with a shot (filmed by Dutch audiences. Laura De Boer, who Cairo late 2019. Boeijink wondered a drone) of the Rotterdam plays Anna, is Dutch but based in if the story and images would be skyline, writes Geoffrey Macnab. Berlin and works more in Germany universal enough to appeal to an than in The Netherlands. Tom international audience, but those We draw closer and closer to a high Vermeir, who plays the arrogant concerns proved unnecessary as the rise apartment in which wealthy patriarch, is Belgian. viewers in Egypt responded warmly property developer Paul, his wife to the film, picking up on what its Anna, an expert in ceramics, and Finding the boy proved a struggle. director believes are universal their son Thomas live, seemingly in Boeijink had chosen a young actor themes about family, work, wealth prosperity and domestic harmony. but then production was postponed. and the illusion of the perfect life. “Two years later, we couldn’t make The film’s title comes from the idea the movie with that boy. He was too Porcelain was in selection for that porcelain may look perfect but old and so we had to start the whole CineMart (IFFR’s co-production that it is decaying from within. Anna process again.” market) in 2014 but took several explains this in the course of her job years to finance. The director had but the metaphor is obvious. Cracks The director was determined to find started the project with her then- in the facade of the perfect family someone young enough to act with­ husband, Thibaud Delpeut, a well life soon begin to appear. The little out self-consciousness, who would known theatre director. boy has behavioural problems. He is forget that the cameras were there. prey to fits of unexplained aggression. “He had to be old enough to take “In the beginning, it went really into account things that I wanted to smoothly,” Boeijink remembers of “I have this feeling about modern direct but also young enough to be the lengthy financing process. western society that we are all some­ spontaneous.” Eventually, she However, potential backers would times aiming at the wrong thing,” found Neathan van der Gronden, always ask whether this was a horror Boeijink explains the underlying a kid from the Utrecht region who film, a fantasy or a drama. Some themes of her film. “We are trying to had never acted before and was able were uncomfortable that they have a great career, friends, a big to play Thomas with­out worrying couldn’t pigeonhole the genre. house. We dress properly. Every­thing about his motivation and what She pays tribute to producer Sander is picture perfect. It’s maybe an drove his destructive behaviour. Verdonk at New Amsterdam Film illness of modern society that it is Company who stayed with the more about surface than it is about Throughout the course of the film, its project from the start and guided it the inside.” visual style changes. The opening is towards completion.

27 Tiger Short Competition Beer at IFFR

In the 36-minute experimental filmBeer , iconoclastic film­ maker Erik van Lieshout pulls off an improbable, if not impossible feat, writes Nick Cunningham.

He accepts an extremely well- endowed art prize (€100,000) without being in any way complicit in the questionable dealings of the mega- brand that bears its name.

Just after Erik van Lieshout won the coveted Heineken prize, details of the beer company’s alleged nefarious activities in Africa were published, involving sexual abuse of promotion hostesses. Beer So what did Van Lieshout do? He did what any self-respecting iconoclast When he really gets into the swing of Other topics Van Lieshout explores and neo-Surrealist would do, and things he goes beer mad, unveiling in the film are sex with his wife and mounted a full frontal assault on a Heineken green sofa (same masturbation (twice a week and the company, and seemed to have pantone colour), rebrands the Yellow every day respectively), the creative a great time in the process. In his Canary pub across as the Green urge and the fear of aging. He also subsequent film, not only does he Canary, and has himself rolled spends a lot of time pulling human bite the hand that feeds him, he also through the streets of Wiesbaden in shapes on his floor to resemble what unleashes his most confrontational a human-size beer can. seem to be numerous photographs and disruptive inner self. of turds. Which is all great fun, but he is by Van Lieshout is very funny and is nature confrontational, and in the “We tried to edit the film really great on camera, and does nothing film is delighted to say of Heineken strongly on the Heineken problem, by half measures. In the film he is to camera, “they’re a terrible but then it became a very boring mainly housebound, due to a knee company, they’re raping all over film,” Van Lieshout says. “So I had to injury and so, in the great Africa,” before labeling them put in the other stuff which was procrastinatory tradition of the “colonist exploiters.” important for me and the film… But creative artist, discovers the house conflict is always the most important chores that must be done before What’s more, he spent a sizeable thing for me.” he really gets down to business. portion of the prize money on helping­ But luckily, each chore, whether to construct a pharmacy in central Elsewhere at IFFR, projects by two of fixing the bathroom cabinet or Africa to help some of the communi­­ The Netherlands’ most vibrant film levelling a floor, are recorded, ties that Heineken’s marketing talents were presented at CineMart documented and used in the film. practices have allegedly harmed. 2020.

Beer Director: Erik van Lieshout Script: Erik van Lieshout, Suzanne Weenink Production: Suzanne Weenink

28 Beer at IFFR CineMart goes NL

David Verbeek’s The Wolf, the Fox & the Leopard is a dystopian story about Isa (23) who has been found living amongst wolves. She is brought back to a medical centre only to be kidnapped by an idealistic couple in order to help them build a new, purer world.

Produced by Lemming Film, the 100-minute €2,700,000 project has €127,500 in place from the Netherlands Film Fund (€102,500) and Creative Europe (€25,000). The screenplay is also written by Verbeek.

“In order to start any attempt to describe the core of this film, we must look at the animal kingdom and ask ourselves what it is exactly that separates us from them,” says Garden of Earthly Delights the director. “What we do all day with our oversized part of the brain called In Morgan Knibbe’s €1.5m project “The Garden of Earthly Delights will the frontal lobe is run simulations, The Garden of Earthly Delights, become an explosively colourful, structure the past and project 12-year-old drug addict Kenji fights eclectic and grim fairytale in which possible future outcomes or even for attention, respect and freedom in grotesque images of hellish horror entirely alternative variations on the drug-infused slums of Manila. are set against moments of surreal things we have perceived before. beauty,” Knibbe comments. What I mean to say here is: we’re Meanwhile, he struggles with his “The images will have a layered storytellers.” sexuality and crosses paths meaning. In the first place, the with Dutch sex tourist Michael, who cinematic form will serve the “I see the art of cinema as a spiritual is being torn apart by his dark emotional journey of the main exercise,” he continues. “Something desires. characters, which will become that cuts beneath rational narration. intensely tangible and sensory, And perhaps, at its core, to begin Knibbe blazed like a comet onto the mixing gritty social realism with with, the effort to prevent the Dutch production scene in 2014 with magical escapades. destruction of the world is similar to his audacious doc debut Those Who this; a spiritual exercise more than Feel the Fire Burning. Following this, Co-written with Roelof Jan Minneboo, anything else.” his The Atomic Soldiers won the the Filipino and English-language Golden Calf (Dutch Academy Award) film is produced by BALDR Film and Right now, Verbeek is in post- for Best Short Documentary in 2018 has €72,500 in place, courtesy of the production on his feature film and the Dutch Director’s Guild Netherlands Film Fund (€22,500) Dead & Beautiful, also produced by Grand Prize in 2019. and Creative Europe (€50,000). Lemming Film.

Garden of Earthly Delights Director: Morgan Knibbe Script: Morgan Knibbe, Roelof Jan Minneboo Production: BALDR Film Co-production: Cinematografica (PH)

29 New IFFR Director Vanja Kaludjercic

30 Vanja at the vanguard

At the end of IFFR 2020 Vanja She returns to a Rotterdam festival Kaludjercic recognises the Kaludjercic took over as Festival that has regained its reputation as sterling work performed by the Director from Bero Beyer, a core player in the discovery of new experienced team and is holding who will now be heading up the and vibrant cinema from all corners fire until Cannes following a period Netherlands­ Film Fund. of the globe, and as an essential tool of careful appraisal both of the in its finance, realisation and festival they have just hosted, and Vanja Kaludjercic tells an interesting release. the 50th birthday celebrations to story about her first visit to IFFR. come. It was back in 2002, in the days before cheap flights, when she and She returns to a Rotter­ What is very clear is that she will five of her friends piled into a car dam festival that has continue to be at the vanguard in and drove all the way non-stop from regained its reputation demanding equal representation Zagreb, dozed off for a couple of as a core player in the for women both at her festival and hours overnight by Rotterdam across the wider industry, and Centraal, and then grabbed her discovery of new and across all sectors, both creative and accreditation just in time for vibrant cinema business. a Miike Takashi 9 am screening. She also underlines the uniqueness Back then (and little has changed At IFFR 2020 Kaludjercic shadowed of the festival’s host city, Rotterdam. since) the goal was to see 5 or 6 films the redoubtable and outgoing Beyer. “It’s such a diverse and exciting a day, meet up later with her friends “I had, for the first time, a bird’s eye place, which is exactly what the and colleagues and then lock horns view over the ensemble of events, festival is designed to reflect. Every over beers with the producers and and I can still say it is one of the area and interest is catered for. directors of the films she had just most amazing festivals in the world. From events for filmmakers, artists seen. It has so many activities that cater to and musicians to educational different demographics, and to see opportunities, there is a whole the different ways that film and art range of activities that extend across We are about to reach blend together through audience the cityscape. half a century and this and maker engagement is really should be one of our fantastic.” “Rotterdam is a place that pillars for the future celebrates unconventional cinema, “I really enjoyed seeing the number champions filmmakers and brings of youngsters at the festival visiting audiences from both worlds Since then, Kaludjercic has continued en masse, that was really fantastic to together in an informal way, to champion ground-breaking see,” she adds. “It is an ambition to creating a thrilling atmosphere,” independent cinema from around increase as much as possible Kaludjercic says. the world, programming for the younger audiences, and to include likes of Sarajevo, Cinéma du Réel them even more in the festival “With the festival’s 50th year fast and CPH:DOX, heading up Holland programme. We are about to reach approaching I will continue to Film Meeting and most recently half a century and this should be celebrate everything that Rotterdam working as Head of Acquisitions for one of our pillars for the future.” is, and can become, as we look streaming outlet MUBI. And yes, for towards another 10 years of diverse, two years she was head of Talks and In terms of announcing wider ground breaking and inspiring

© Vera Cornel © Vera Masterclasses for IFFR. policy change or future priorities, film.”

31 Dutch Shorts Clermont-Ferrand

Jona/Tomberry Rosto

Dutch filmmakers were once the same time there’s a belief that are very current in my country at again in the frame at Clermont- we should be mindful of the fact the moment. But when my film Ferrand, the world’s leading that boys and girls are anatomically screened at the International short film festival. Nick Cunning­ different. So here we have two Filmfestival Emden-Norderney in ham reports. camps and in our film this is Germany, I received a lot of praise represented by the mom on the from especially teachers in the In Jamille van Wijngaarden’s very left side of the table and the teacher audience. So I came to realize these funny short Tienminutengesprek on the right,” stresses van matters really transcend borders.” (School’s Out), selected for Wijngaarden. International Competition and supported by KORT! (Film Fund, “At the same time there are many Andy Goralczyk’s animation Spring, CoBO fund, NTR and NPO Fund), problems in our education system, made at Blender Animation Studio an old-style primary school teacher a lack of teachers resulting in and selected for Clermont-Ferrand exacts violent revenge on a very overpopulated classrooms and Young Audience section, is the story pushy parent who demands the very concerned parents venting their of a shepherd and her dog who must best in modern education for her concerns with already stressed face ancient spirits in order to child. teachers. This really puts a lot of continue the cycle of life. It is pressure on our educators and is a proto-mythological tale of the Despite playing for laughs, the film, something that needs to be coming of spring, a ritual as old as produced by Dutch production addressed. So with this film the world, and is frightening, house The Rogues and shot over I hopefully allow educators, who are enormous and exquisite in equal 2.5 days, has a serious undertow, really undervalued, to be heard.” measure. the director points out. The film has an in-built universal “I grew up close to the Swiss Alps,” “In recent years we are seeing appeal, the director adds. “To be points out director Goralczyk. a more open-minded approach honest I made this film from “While I was growing up, our family towards gender neutrality, but at a Dutch perspective with issues that did many hiking trips through the

School’s Out (Tienminutengesprek) Director & script: Jamille Van Wijngaarden Production: The Rogues

32 Retrospective Rosto Spring Andy Goralczyk School’s Out Jamille Van Wijngaarden Flow Adriaan Lokman Playing Men – Homo Ludens Sanne Rovers

honoured at Clermont-Ferrand, a festival that followed his every move with deep interest and fascination. Lauded by cineastes across the world, Rosto made the masterly Wreckers Tetralogy which consisted of No Place like Home, Lonely Bones, Splintertime and Reruns, all of which were satellites around what he called the Spring mothership ‘Mind My Gap’: an online graphic novel of 26 mountains. There are places that Adriaan Lokman’s beautiful and episodes that illustrated his bizarre, feel very ancient and much bigger extraordinary short animation Flow unique, stylish and highly than our small existence. But (Special Program: 3D), made for idiosyncratic universe. sometimes there are small traces, Valk Productions and supported by carved stones, runes that give us The Netherlands Film Fund, looks The Clermont-Ferrand retrospective a hint of the tiny impact us humans to present in dramatic and physical includes 6 films: The Rise and Fall have had.” form the shape and power of the air of the Legendary Anglobilly Feverson that surrounds us. He does so by (2002), Jona/Tomberry (2005), “The films of Hayao Miyazaki were linear-tracking the movement of No Place Like Home (2009), certainly the biggest influence wind around solid objects (humans, Lonely Bones (2013), The Monster when it comes to the visual style,” buildings, a turbulent sea, even of Nix (2011) and Big White Big he adds. “Very naturalistic with a lazy hand languidly extended from Black (2016). a strong connection to reality. the window of a sports car) and then We wanted to create a world that removing those objects from the feels rich and tangible, which is very frame. Finally, Sanne Rovers’ 2017 Dutch/ challenging to do in computer Belgian short doc Playing Men – graphics. Again, it’s the connection “Everything that is invisible I turn Homo Ludens plays in the European between us and nature that was the visible. Everything that is visible Short Film Award section. Dressing leading element. The works of I turn invisible,” Lokman points up as a Viking for the weekend or Caspar David Friedrich, a 19th out. “I like to look in another way at racing through mud pools, some century romantic painter were very things that are kind of ordinary, in people lose themselves in games influential when it came to the this case the wind that is around us while others find it a curious way of juxtaposition of human versus all the time. We can’t see it but it passing time. nature.” has a huge influence on our lives… It is a beautiful and fascinating In the film we meet a selection of “The mission of our studio is to thing but you don’t see it, you only dare devils and free spirits; grown- develop Open Source software for see the effects of what it does.” ups who completely immerse computer animation and film- themselves in games. At times, making,” Goralczyk continues. their complete devotion to the game “Our developers work alongside us The eccentric, visionary and wildly will have the viewer wondering: artists to improve the tools of our talented filmmaker Rosto, who died what is it that drives humans to play trade, namely Blender.” tragically early in 2019, will be human?

Spring Director & script: Andy Goralczyk Flow Director & script: Adriaan Lokman Playing Men – Homo Ludens Director Production: Blender Animation Studio Production: Valk Productions & script: Sanne Rovers Production: Prospektor and NTR

33 21 March-31 May 2020 Eye Exhibition Eye on Akerman Chantal Akerman: Passages

For Jaap Guldemond, Director of by its quality,” he says of the heart. Editor Claire Atherton, who Exhibitions/Chief Curator at the installation which features 24 worked with Akerman for over Eye Filmmuseum, the staging of monitors in a darkened space. 30 years, is one of the artist’s key the Chantal Akerman exhibition, It was a non-narrative piece but he collaborators, and has been in close Passages (21 March-31 May immediately responded to “the contact with Eye about the show. 2020), is the fulfilment of a very sensitivity of the images.” The work Guldemond has also been in close long standing personal ambition, showed him how fruitfully touch with Akerman’s gallery, the writes Geoffrey Macnab. filmmakers with ability and vision Marian Goodman Gallery, and with could make use of the exhibition the artist’s sister. “We started this project before she space to amplify their movie work. died. This is exactly the field we are A lavish catalogue has been prepared trying to focus on in our exhibition Akerman was a troubled figure, for the exhibition. “Firstly, Akerman programme,” Guldemond says of a manic-depressive with a close and is an amazing filmmaker.­ Secondly, the show celebrating the pioneering sometimes stifling relationship with she is an important feminist, avant-garde feminist filmmaker her mother, an Auschwitz survivor. already from the mid-70s onward. who committed suicide in 2015. In the context of our museum, she is one of the first filmmakers who Akerman made both features for ‘She was one of the key deliberately took the step of theatres and installations for figures I knew I would developing film installations based galleries. “That made her very love to work with’ on works she had first meant to be special. Finally (with this shown in cinemas. There was no exhibition), we are able to really catalogue talking about this start at the beginning of this In her films, for example her early subject,” Guldemond explains why transformation of film into feature Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce he and his colleagues went to such exhibition and vice versa. Chantal Quay, 1080 Brussels (1975), about efforts to produce their book. It not Akerman was one of the first a single mother who is also a only features writing by the artist filmmakers who discovered the prostitute, she dealt with the oppres­ herself but several essays focusing exhibition space.” sive monotony of women’s lives. on her installation work and the general themes in her work. “She very precisely represents what Guldemond had been hoping to I am trying to establish in the Eye stage an Akerman exhibition for Akerman has influential admirers, Filmmuseum with the exhibition many years. He met her several among them filmmakers like programme. Right from the times in Paris to discuss such Joanna Hogg and Mark Cousins. beginning, she was one of the key a project. Occasionally, their Guldemond suggests her work is figures I knew I would love to work meetings were disrupted when she now also being rediscovered by with,” he underlines. would have manic episodes but a broader audience because of its there were also periods when she attention to feminist issues. She is Guldemond had been aware of was calm and lucid. “Just when a towering figure whose influence is Akerman’s filmmaking as long ago I was trying to formulate what I was felt in sometimes mysterious and as the late 1970s. However, in the trying to do (in the exhibition), she indirect ways. The exhibition, which mid 1990s, at a museum in died,” he says. includes both her earliest work and Wolfsburg, he stumbled on one of the installation Now she presented her installations for the first time. Now, the Eye curator is delighted to just before her death, is bound to “I remember that I was really struck stage an exhibition close to his boost her reputation yet further.

34 21 March-31 May 2020 Eye Exhibition Chantal Akerman: Passages

Chantal Akerman in the mirror 1971-2007

35 Bilal Wahib European Film Promotion Shooting Star from The Netherlands 2020, and star of Mees Peijnenburg’s Paradise Drifters in Berlinale Generation 14plus.