Simba: A Journey from East to West
Exactly one hundred years after his Javanese great-grandmother Sanwiradji was silently
shipped to Suriname, filmmaker Dimitri Madimin follows her route from Java to
plantation Marienburg and further to Amsterdam, where the colonizer established his power
centralized in the monumental headquarters of the Dutch Trading Company:
De Bazel. A cinematic quest across three continents for identity and transgenerational
resilience.
Director: Dimitri Madimin
Collaboration with the Municipality of Amsterdam City Archives
If I take your place
In If I take your place three young people from families marked by a war past (Indian, Jewish and Bosnian) enter a family constellation. They investigate the impact of this past, the effects of patterns on themselves as later generations, and search for relief from long-hidden pain.
Director: Juliette Dominicus
The forgotten Silesian camps
An essential fact for the visualisation is that many of the former camp locations are still more or less intact. The same applies to most of the mass graves that have remained untouched since the days of Nazism. When the final resting place of the deportee in question is officially unknown, the Dutch inventory of Holocaust victims usually mentions 'somewhere in Central Europe'. The ongoing research by Lion Tokkie aims for the documentary to concretise this vague concept in one or more specific cases by showing the correct location. Moreover, this also provides an opportunity to finally provide one or more surviving relatives with certainty about the previously unknown resting place of their murdered family member after thorough research.
Director: Alfred Edelstein
Broadcaster: EO
The Family Goes Crazy
The devoted and dutiful farmer's daughter and caregiver Hilde (50) has become a slave to her dictatorial and demented mother (75). In order to gain more freedom with her new boyfriend, the honest Hilde must learn how to deceive her mother. However, when she discovers that her brother and mother have been hiding a terrible secret from her for 15 years, she increasingly abandons her principles and everything is permitted to regain her freedom.
Screenplay: Janneke van der Pal
Director: Rob Lücker
Looking for international co-producers (Australia)
Tinderman
Tinderman is the story of Simon, an aspiring graphic novelist from the US residing in Amsterdam with his Dutch wife and their son. When his wife leaves him for another man, Simon's world is shattered. Overwhelmed by the fear of abandonment, and deeply scarred by past traumas, he turns to the dating app Tinder. To Simon's amazement he finds the perfect woman on his very first date. Eve seems to be his new soulmate and Simon decides to leave Tinder. But just as he wants to delete the app, the forty someone receives a text message from a beautiful, 22 year old girl tempting him into a night of passion. Simon concludes: Tinder is fantastic! He hits the gym and tans, buys fashionable clothes and becomes obsessed with dating as many women as possible. Simon starts to believe he is the 'God of Dating', the short euphoria of a successful date seems to offer the perfect remedy for the pain of loneliness. But Simon gets addicted to dating, and it starts to take over his life. Only when he's on the brink of losing everything does he come to the
realization that his problem lies deeper within himself, leading to a dramatic turn of events. In the film Simon creates the graphic novel Tinderman, about his own life. His drawings come to life in animations in a moving storyboard style, paying homage to the art of comic strips. Tinderman is a dark but funny tale of love, loss, addiction and online dating, providing a stunning visual and thought-provoking journey for the audience.
Screenplay/ Director: Jaap van Eyck
Coproduction: Luxembourg / Canada
Polder pioneers
Lies Verhoeven wants to move her family and ailing farm to the new Noordoostpolder to live in an ideal society, but has to disguise reality in a strict selection set up by the idealistic head overseer Bram Lindenbergh, who in turn tries to protect his ideals in a struggle with power and political forces.
Screenplay: Mathijs Mulder
Director: Rob Lücker
SOLAR
When a geomagnetic storm knocks out the world's electricity and communications systems, eight ordinary people on the farthest reaches of Africa are left in the dark about whether they will find the love, forgiveness, and meaning they desperately need.
Director: Jason Jacobs & Devon Delmar
Co-production: KRAAL
