The Dutch Film Festival is about to erupt. A spacious week with a broad overview of everything moving on Dutch screens, from public film to short student film. Last year was noisy: directors, editors and cameramen expressed gloom about the quality and guts of patriotic film. Visitor numbers don't seem to be over the top either, although there are no figures yet. But in all this misery, there is a small village that is bravely holding out. The village of the Directors' Forum. For the fifth time, Dana Linssen and Jan Pieter Ekker are organising a programme where idiosyncratic quality is paramount. Reason for a conversation.
Five years ago, Linssen and Ekker started the forum at the invitation of the previous director, Willemien van Aalst. The idea was - and is - to give film criticism a place at the festival again. And to give the films they love a stage. Because although the selection is the cream of the crop for seasoned cinephiles, it is mostly films that do not attract a large audience in cinemas.
Yet, according to Ekker, they are not pathetic films. Each one is special enough to give it a new kind of stage. Therefore, they really want to do something special for the makers: make cross-connections with other arts, long serious after-dinner conversations. It's always a struggle to get it done, every time slot has to be fought for. The Forum should be a warm bath for the directors, with dinner beforehand and a good conversation after. Actually, that should apply to the whole festival, of course.
Troublesome image
Ekker does not turn his nose up at films like Gooische Vrouwen and the other big audience films. One needs the other. 'In a healthy film industry, the public film and the small film flourish. There is room for both, an audience can be found for both.'
With many people, Dutch film has that awkward image of flat audience film, which makes it very difficult to attract people. With me, that image is also stubborn. Even though I saw two wonderful Dutch films in Rotterdam: Beast in the Jungle of Clara van Gool, and God Only Knows by Mijke de Jong. Both really, really good films. Instinct, which is opening film, I have not yet seen, but expectations are high.
'It is very clever what Halina Reijn has achieved in her first film. With Instinct, it was unclear for a long time where it would be picked up, nationally and internationally. It was clear to me that the film had to be in the Forum, but that became difficult when it also became the opening film. Yet these do not bite each other at all. On Friday is the glamorous opening with Halina in her finest dress and Carice van Houten and Marwan Kenzari on the red carpet. And then on Saturday, Halina can come in her jeans to talk about the making process. That shows the breadth of the festival and Dutch film.'
Crossing borders
Ekker and Linssen would rather choose a film they disagree on than one they both 'like'. 'Quite nice' is not good enough, that falls off immediately. There is something in every film that you think could be better, but also and especially something they find very special. Makers who dare something, who cross boundaries and try something they haven't done before.
What do you want to say to people like me who keep grumbling about Dutch cinema?
'Just come and see what has been made. Take Me Somewhere Nice is the most beautiful thing made in years. Many people find it black and nasty, but there are lots of layers in it and a lightness to it. It's about the war, of course, but it's not explicitly mentioned anywhere. It's all captured in images here, there's nothing in it without intention. But it's just next to everything, you have to put in just a little more effort as a viewer.'
‘The Libi is something else entirely. Director Shady El-Hamus knows very well who it is made for and then everything about it is right. That's what we're looking for. Now Something is Slowly Changing has not been nominated for a calf by its peers. Incredible. So much thought has gone into the form that Menna Laura Meijer shows and that evokes in the viewer. With you, it's painful recognition, for example.
All creators have thought about the best way to tell a story. These directors also often write and get involved in everything. Is that perhaps what distinguishes it from being an auteur film or is that a rotten term?
'Yes that is a rotten term, as all terms are actually laborious. Ate de Jong tweeted last year that we had created a reserve for films that nobody comes to and with a kind of polder authorship.'
All registers
'We really enjoy doing it, but it's really about the film. Every year, we also sit with the film fund and think how to attract the most audiences to the cinema for this. You really have to pull out all the stops and do Q&As with the makers. And you can do that here in Utrecht.'
Have you seen Forum of Directors change anything in the 5 years?
'No, there is a lot of grumbling, but every year there are wonderful films. And sometimes things don't work out. We would have really liked the installation Nightfall by Jeroen Eijsinga to the church next to the municipal museum. But then we had to arrange a very good projector and a huge screen, and that was not practically feasible. Now it is going to Rotterdam. Pity, I think then, it should have been with us. That work is so special.'
For the last time
'The selection comes about very intuitively. We have a Google Doc and we put titles in there. The top six are almost automatically selected. The other films, that becomes a conversation. We would like to screen more, but every slot is fighting.'
'Visitor numbers fluctuate. That is of course a problem for Utrecht, as a subsidised institution. They are judged on room occupancy. But we go in with a straight leg and we do have a one hundred per cent free hand. We want to start every year with an open mind, see how best to do it, how best to introduce it. This year we heard it was the last year. No doubt there are others who can also put together a forum or something similar, but we think it's a shame. And we are happy to hear from many people that they also think it's a shame.'
Incomprehensible
An incomprehensible decision. The showpiece of the festival, where you can also show off the quality of Dutch film internationally. This programme single-handedly disproves all preconceptions, including mine, about our film culture. It shows films with daring, that sometimes go off the rails, but at least are not safe. Ekker is curious to see what will happen with the forum. Because the aim is to do keep organising something for these kinds of beautiful but tricky films. What form that will take is not known at the moment. First things first: the latest edition. That one looks good.
'We are looking forward to it immensely. But it's also a bit weird.'
In a response, the Netherlands Film Festival informs that this is indeed the last Directors' Forum for Dana Linssen and Jan Pieter Ekker, but that it will simply be programmed again next year.
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