From the imposing mating call of the red deer and the flight of the buzzard to the hunt of the fox and the micro-ecosystem on a massive oak: nature documentarist Luc Enting recorded it all for his stunning feature film Wild Heart of Holland, produced by PVPictures. The result of his efforts is an exciting, moving and often humorous film, revealing the beauty and diversity of this wild park in every season. We also watch the main characters grow up to adulthood, a path inevitably dogged with challenges. Enting: “To me, this park, in any season, has an almost un-Dutch beauty. It is the largest continuous nature reserve in northwest Europe with an incredible variety of landscapes and life. It has forests, heath, sand drifts, brooks and pushed moraines. With my film, I would like to give a new insight into its incredibly diverse nature.”
Tom Fassaert (Naarden, 1979) has been fascinated by his grandmother Marianne, who lives in South Africa, from an early age. His only knowledge of her comes from the mythical – and in the main negative – stories he heard from his father. She was a femme fatale who went through countless men; and in the 1950s, a famous model who put her two sons into a children’s home. She was also a mother who suddenly decided out of the blue to emigrate to South Africa, far away from the rest of her family. When his father and his now 95-year-old grandmother again become embroiled in conflict, Fassaert’s fascination with his family history is reignited. During this period, his grandmother also asks him to come to South Africa to help her with her will. He decides to make a film about this woman, who has such a huge influence on her family, and to get to the bottom of the enduring myths and legends surrounding her. But his venture quickly becomes way more complicated than he could ever have imagined.
Josef Ganz, editor of trade journal Motor-Kritik, amazed Germany by appearing in a revolutionary tiny car in 1932. It was his dream: a people's car anyone can afford. The idea made its way to new Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler. But in Hitler's dream there was no place for Jewish inventor Ganz. This is the story of the man whose designs led to the invention of the Volkswagen Beetle, and who ultimately lost everything. In the film, Ganz's relatives and admirers bring his lost heritage back to life.
A documentary in which after being released from prison, former criminal Viggo wonders why he developed from a sensitive little boy into a merciless criminal. He decides to give up his criminal existence for good and dives into his past to avoid making the very same mistakes a second time. Viggo realizes that the damage he suffered because of his family might jeopardize his new life. His quest, in which he drags his two sister, leads to painful confrontations with their past and also with one another. The secrets of their incestuous family and manipulative father are unraveled little by little.
Erbarme dich - Matthäus Passion Stories is a labyrinthine narrative in which notables such as Peter Sellars, Emio Greco, Simon Halsey and painter Rinke Nijburg explain their special relationship with Bach’s St Matthew Passion to Ramón Gieling (Johan Cruijff: en un momento dado). They speak against the backdrop of a church which has fallen into disrepair, while a choir of homeless people and Pieter Jan Leusink’s Bach Choir & Orchestra rehearse the Passion. Leusink isn't just the conductor, he is one of the main characters himself, with a painful past in which this musical piece has played a dominant role. Stories from the others alternate seamlessly with this. We learn how the St Matthew Passion played a decisive role in the relations between men and women, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, mothers and their unborn children, and finally that in spite of our differences we all find a common denominator in the secret of Bach's music.
Although scientists and agribusiness have started touting edible insects as the future of sustainable food, the notion of eating bugs hasn’t exactly gained much popularity among the general public. Head Chef Ben Reade and Lead Researcher Josh Evans from the Nordic Food Lab in Denmark are looking to change that. With a focus on food diversity and deliciousness, they set out on a globe-trotting mission to take on the politics of the palate, sampling grubs in the Australian outback, pillaging giant wasp nests in Japan and attending food expos where entrepreneurs pitch their flavorless farmed crickets. Along the way, they put their own haute cuisine spin on local insect delicacies, whipping up dishes like cricket and grasshopper ravioli, maggot cheese gelato and bee larva ceviche.
