We invite you with great pleasure to Dutch Cinema Review which will take place during the 21st edition of the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE. Sixteen films will be screened, encompassing the period between 2001 and 2012, thus showing the latest achievements of cinema of the Netherlands, which occupies an important position on the film map of Europe. Dutch Cinema Review, organized with the help from Eye International and Kingdom of Netherlands, is another step of Camerimage Festival in promoting the richness of European cinema. Additionally, director Jos Stelling and cinematographer Goert Giltay will visit Bydgoszcz with their latest film The Girl and Death. They will meet with Camerimage audience after the screening, and also sit in the Festival Juries.

Still from "The Girl and Death"
Dutch cinema has a distinctive and glorious past, with its inception at the end years of the 19th century when the film industry started to flourish and the first films have been made (Gestoorde hengelaar, dir. M.H. Laddé, 1896). This young cinema soon achieved a wide recognition and was one of the most successful in the first few decades of the 20th century. The Second World War had put a stop to its development, but throughout the subsequent years the Dutch had both a wonderful slate of internationally acclaimed documentary filmmakers (with awards at IFF Berlin, Cannes, Venice, and an Oscar in the Documentary Short Subject category).

Paul Verhoeven became the most widely known Dutch filmmaker, and before he started his illustrious Hollywood career he took the box-office records at home, together with establishing his directorial effort Turkish Delight as no. 1 Dutch film for the years to come and igniting an international career of Rutger Hauer. Verhoeven's colleagues had also many successes: Jos Stelling, Theo van Gogh, Ate de Jong and others mixed their artistic visions with more commercial approach, and Fons Rademakers won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for The Assault (1986). One cannot forget the fantastic achievements of cinematographer Robby Müller, considered one of the best in his craft. During 21st edition of Camerimage we will focus on more recent Dutch films and their embarrassment of riches.

Still from "Winter in Wartime"
Still from "Position Among the Stars"
Those Dutch filmmakers who do not try to go the easiest commercial road have one thing in common - their ways of storytelling are strictly human-oriented. They observe their protagonists, beautiful in their flawed lives, with care and understanding, watching their tragicomic everyday struggles. They show people that got lost and simply try to find a resounding human experience (Wolfsbergen, dir. Nanouk Leopold, cin. Richard Van Oosterhout), they wonder on growing up in times of war (Winter in Wartime, dir. Martin Koolhoven, cin. Guido Van Gennep), and reflect on facing the demons of one's own past (The Bird Can't Fly, dir. Anna Threes, cin. Guido Van Gennep).

This is an auteur's cinema in its greatest form, films that are multidimensional and require from the viewer his or her full attention. They document the everyday struggle of different generations (trilogy The Eye of the Day, Shape of the Moon, Position Among the Stars, dir. Leonard Retel Helmrich, cin. Leonard Retel Helmrich), tell stories about the dangers coming from the modern technology (R U There, dir. David Verbeek, cin. Lennert Hillege), talk about love that is impossible due to class standings (The Girl and Death, dir. Jos Stelling, cin. Goert Giltay), and cross the boundaries of film experience (Code Blue, dir. Urszula Antoniak, cin. Jasper Wolf).

Still from "R U There"
Wolfsbergen"
Despite taking up many sad themes, this New Dutch cinema can be also both warm and ironic, open to the possibility of something new. It is a kaleidoscope of concepts, ideas and visions that says a lot about the modern face of the Netherlands and simultaneously is strictly universal in its resonance. Meet the Dutch cinema with Camerimage!

Here is the list of the films that will be screened during the Festival:

• Bird Can't Fly, The, dir. Anna Threes, cin. Guido Van Gennep (Netherlands, Republic of South Africa, Ireland, 2007)
  
• Domino Effect, The; dir. Paula van der Oest, cin. Guido Van Gennep, (UK, Netherlands, 2012)
  
• Echoes of War; dir. Joop van Wijk, cin. Melle Van Essen (Netherlands, 2004)
  
• Eye of the Day, The; dir. Leonard Retel Helmrich, cin. Leonard Retel Helmrich (Netherlands, Indonesia, 2001)
  
• F.I.S.H.I.N.G, dir. Pieter-Rini de Kroon, cin. Paul van den Bos, Stef Tijdink (Netherlands, 2012)
  
• Girl and Death, The; dir. Jos Stelling, cin. Goert Giltay (Netherlands, Russia, Germany, 2012)
  
• Kauwboy; dir. Boudewijn Koole, cin. Daniël Bouquet (Netherlands, 2012)
  
• Last Victory, The; dir. John Appel,cinj. Erik van Empel (Netherlands, 2003)
  
• Nothing Personal; dir. Urszula Antoniak, cin. David Bouquet (Netherlands, Ireland, 2009)
  
• Position Among the Stars; dir. Leonard Retel Helmrich, cin. Leonard Retel Helmrich, Ismail Fahmi Lubish (Netherlands, Indonesia, 2010)
  
• R U There; dir. David Verbeek, cin. Lennert Hillege (Taiwan, Netherlands, France, 2010)
  
• Shape of the Moon; dir. Leonard Retel Helmrich, cin. Leonard Retel Helmrich (Netherlands, 2004)
  
• Winter in Wartime; dir. Martin Koolhoven, cin. Guido Van Gennep (Belgium, Netherlands, 2008)
  
• Wolfsbergen; dir. Nanouk Leopold, cin. Richard Van Oosterhout (Belgium, Netherlands, 2007)
  
• Wrong Time, Wrong Place; dir. John Appel, cin. Erik van Empel (Netherlands, 2012)

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