VPRO

A manless world, a nuclear missile on Amsterdam, a collective brainwash, and suffering as a recipe for success. Six filmmakers drag the viewer into their most terrifying fantasies.

In Europa is a series of television documentaries on Europe in the 20th century, based on the book with the same name by Dutch writer and historian Geert Mak. The series had a budget of 4 million euro and was cofinanced by the Dutch Ministry of Interior Relations. Episodes are available for viewing on the official site. First broadcast on Nederland 2 from 2007 to 2009, quite a few locations important in European history are shown throughout the series, both historical and current. After two episodes the Flemish public channel bought the series, starting broadcasts on January 8, 2008. Swedish public channel Sveriges Television bought the series as well, starting broadcasts from January 2009. Croatian public television also bought the series and begun broadcasting from late 2011 through 2012. Although the series is mainly in Dutch, many of the episodes can be understood, as interviews with eyewitnesses or sons or daughters of contemporary figures tend to be in English.

By living in The Netherland, you take part in a socioeconomic system. How we live, earn our money or deal with mental health care; the options are limited and largely determined by others. Whether we like it or not. But there are people that do things differently, people that deliberately choose to live outside forementioned preconditioned systems. Who are these people, that challenge and oppose the norm?

Communications consultant Michael Bellicher is forced to become a fugitive when he is framed for the murder of a colleague and his identity is stolen.

Freek Vonk finds a box of old video tapes in the attic. They are the first short nature films, which he made earlier with his friends Maysem and Bas. The young Freek and his friends discover that they can learn a lot from animals. About nature, but also about themselves.

Sint Hubertusberg is the final Jiskefet series, set in a bleak and surreal retirement home. It is a tragicomic satire of elderly care, blending absurd humor with a poignant, often painful realism.

Koolhoven's view is a series of film lectures given by film director and cinephile Martin Koolhoven. Using scenes from his favorite feature films, Koolhoven shares his love for cinema with viewers. No dry critiques and academic treatises, but enthusiastic speeches and inspired observations: Koolhoven is above all an enthusiast.

Series about the life and work of Queen Beatrix, offering a meticulous dramatised interpretation of historical events. The series opens in the Royal tour bus, a few minutes before the attack on Queen’s Day 2009, and goes on to show other tough and fine moments in the monarch’s life. Is she really the business manager on the throne that the media often call her? What is she like as a mother and grandmother? How did she cope with her husband’s depressions and illness?

China is playing an increasingly important role worldwide. Under President Xi Jinping, substantial investments are being made in communication and cooperation and industrious Chinese people are settling abroad in large numbers. Documentary maker and China expert Ruben Terlou visits them in the new VPRO travel series ‘The World of the Chinese’. Who are they, what do they want to achieve and what impact does their presence have on the local population?

A dutch tv show to look at the news week.

Paulien Cornelissen, who studied in Japan years ago, goes back to examine the land of the rising sun. Each episode's theme is a unique, almost translatable word from the Japanese language.