HUMAN

Foreign truck drivers spend their weekend in a deserted parking lot near Moerdijk, waiting for companies to reopen on Monday. Far from home, they keep our economy running.

BELLUM is a film about how war trauma still grips the lives of three generations today. In a hiding room created for this film, we see a Jewish family breaking the silence by finally starting a conversation about suppressing and passing on war trauma. We examine how trauma is passed on from parent to child. Are later generations able to break free from a traumatic experience that they have not experienced themselves?

Izzy (12) and her father Koos (40) are waiting for Izzy’s mother, who will be coming home for the first time in twelve years. But as the evening goes on and Koos starts behaving more and more strangely, Izzy begins to wonder whether her father can be trusted. Will her mother actually come? KOSMOS is a short fiction pilot.

When the Polish au pair Karina goes grocery shopping with the family's children, she notices that the mother does not trust her with her PIN code. A small rift appears in the bond of trust between Karina and the family, with all its consequences.

Report by Frans Bromet on self-organizations of immigrants in the Netherlands and the role these organizations play in the integration of immigrants into Dutch society. Bromet visits, among other places, a radio studio in Nijmegen where a program for Somalis is being recorded, the 'bowling for Turkish families' package by STGT, and an information evening about politics in the Netherlands for immigrant women. Some activities explicitly aim for integration, while for others, integration is at best a side effect.

What if your father murdered your mother? Maeve, Roser, and sisters Perla and Aurora each lost their mother, their father, and their safe home in a single day. Director Sara Kolster, in collaboration with expert Perla Joy, tells their stories about that single day, about how it could happen, but especially about what came afterward. Using tape, they reconstruct the contours of their childhood home, as it was before it became a crime scene, even though it served as a blueprint of their childhood.

In a world where sex has become powerful leverage, Tessa takes on a job as high-class escort and calls herself Aimée. The secret life that comes with the job and the denial of her true feelings detaches her from herself and the people who love her most.

It takes courage to be a queer teenager at an LGBTQIA+ youth summer camp. Along with 65 other queer youngsters, Faas, Fano, Jeroen, and Finley are on their first summer camp, spending five intensive days of workshops that teach them how they can love themselves more. For the first time in their lives, the youths are surrounded by peers, all struggling with the same problems and feelings. As different as they are, they all share one thing: the need for contact and understanding. Mutual recognition of each other’s childhood or coming-out stories stirs up more emotions than they may have thought. Will this help them get closer to each other and eventually themselves?

The 14-year-old David is a talented breakdancer; his mother Mery supports him unconditionally in his ambition to reach the top. As a teenager, she fled her native Armenia, but the situation in her country still plays a major role in the family life. David wants nothing more than make up for what his mother lost. But he is also getting to an age where he starts to have doubts. Dancing and twisting, he looks for a way to make contact with his emotions.

Frans Bromet in search of the bad influences of the modern management culture.

In a world where everyone seems to be glued to their screen, filmmaker Milou Gevers follows a rare group: people without a smartphone. What do they miss, what do they gain and how do they navigate life offline? Gevers investigates their habits, challenges and advantages. Through intimate conversations and sharp observations, we are challenged to question our own digital habits. Is a life without a smartphone still possible? And if so, what does it look like?

The Netherlands is number one in Europe in hosting child pornography. In order to stem this flow of abuse material, the analysts of Meldpunt Kinderporno assess many millions of photos and videos every year. They send online hosts a removal request and criminal material is sent to the police. We do not see the images on their screens, but in their meticulous descriptions we experience how the images of child abuse pile up and get under our skin: they clean the dirt from our digital streets, but pay a high price for it.

In Liesjes hok was leeg (Liesje's pen was empty), Wouter Waayer, now a convinced vegan and Extinction Rebellion activist, returns to the farm in Twente, where he receives another Liesje. We follow the bull calf from its arrival to its departure for the slaughterhouse, some five months later. A search for understanding unfolds between father Jan, the down-to-earth farmer who has devised a system to reduce emissions in barns, and Wouter, the idealist who would love to start a retirement home for cows. Between them: Liesje, a calf that slowly grows into a symbol for everything that conflicts between father and son, tradition and system change, love for animals, and farming.

The Birds Shall Return is a documentary narrated by grandmothers and third-generation Palestinians from Jordan and the Netherlands. Their intimate testimonies show how passing on stories is an act of resistance; From memories of a paradise within arm’s reach, to the harsh reality of resisting the occupation of their homeland.

Pirate radio stations are unprecedentedly popular, even in the age of the internet and Spotify. What does this music say about identity, about our desire for stability in a changing world?

When Lidija Zelović fled the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina at the age of 22, she didn’t realize that she would henceforth be defined as a “refugee”. Nor that her life would then be spent shuttling between her birthplace and Amsterdam, between the past and the present, between being Lidija and being a foreigner.

Rapper and breakdancer Teekay from Eindhoven is known for his somersaults and vlogs that are causing a stir. During the corona riots in 2021, he not only gained national fame as a vlog reporter, but also ended up briefly in jail. After his junior year, Teekay wants to change course and, above all, be an example for other young people. In the film he takes us into his life and talks about his childhood in foster homes, the mistakes he made and about his dreams. What is Teekay looking for?