Scary Man N/A

Winner of multiple international awards, hilarious and grotesque, inventive and imaginative, this truly unique and extraordinary Dutch film by Eugenie Jansen and Albert Elings is nothing less than a brilliant comment on human nature. It portrays the relationship between people and birds. Hoarse from shouting, tired from running, man eventually thought that the invention of the scarecrow would demonstrate his domination over birds. But the scare soon turned sour and the rag doll became little more than a symbol of the battle between man and bird. Geese in the meadow, sparrows in a glass house, pigeons in the city, starlings on an airport runway - the birds are everywhere. This grotesque story of too many birds and too many people competing for space and resources in a small country makes for a brilliant and very funny film.

Someday We'll all Be Free: The Donny Hathaway Story 2020

Mijn kamer is mijn beste vriend 2007

Documentary about young underage asylum seekers in the Netherlands. Youngsters with a hidden past and an insecure future, who suddenly turn up in our daily lives and disappear again virtually unnoticed, while we have hardly any idea what their 'state of being' is. The documentary was inspired by a project executed at schools, in which these adolescents made a small wooden box that was painted and plastered, sometimes with photographs or small objects, containing their dearest memories phrased in a personal poem in Dutch. Because the film takes the poems as its starting point, it offers spectators a direct peek into the youngsters' 'inner world'.

a Son of Porto N/A

Nineteen-year-old Bendja was born in the Netherlands, but his roots are in Moluccas. His father, writer Frans Lopulalan, understands his son’s desire to touch Moluccan soil; he shares that wish. The two decide to travel to the village of Porto on Saparua island, where Frans’ deceased father, a former KNIL soldier, used to live. Verhaagen follows them on their trip to the tropics. A trip that the two men experience in different ways. Frans writes a lot and visits the ground where his father’s house once stood. Bendja dives into the daily village life. He also wonders if he shouldn’t resume his ancestors’ battle. Frans has mixed feelings about this: ‘I hope he can identify with being Moluccan without it necessarily causing him to reject his life in Holland.’ The personal experiences of father and son Lopulalan are complemented by significant archive footage.