VPRO

Recounted mostly through animation to protect his identity, Amin looks back over his past as a child refugee from Afghanistan as he grapples with a secret he’s kept hidden for 20 years.

Two sixteen-year-old girls, Sanne and Clarissa, are invited to a party by one of their brothers. The girls have done their best to dress appropriately, but when they arrive at the party it turns out that they are completely underdressed and, moreover, by far the youngest. Afterwards they visit a snack bar, where suddenly a nice boy Sanne had met that morning enters the supermarket. 'Snacken' is a subtle story, in which it is not so much about the story, but about the exchanges of glances between two 16-year-old girlfriends, in which vulnerability and bravura compete for priority.

Marian, a middle aged nurse, devotes herself to her patients like a saint. Sometimes she even takes on the role of a redeemer, by helping the gravely ill to the soothing order of ultimate silence. When she gets linked to a neighbor in an act of common voyeurism, she becomes fascinated by him. Faced with the fragility of these newfound emotions, Marian surrenders to her human needs

A young girl sets out to prove to her disapproving mother she can house-train the endearing but unruly little piglet she gets as a birthday gift from her estranged oddball grandfather.

A family film, based on a well-known Dutch story from the Middle Ages. Mariken tells the compelling and poetic story of spirited young girl named Mariken. The orphan Mariken lives in a secluded forest with an eccentric old hermit. One day, she decides to leave her surroundings and sets off for town to buy a new goat. On her adventurous journey into the 'real' world, she finds out about the good and bad sides of people.

In Man Made, Sunny tries to find out what society's ideas regarding masculinity entails. Does testosteron define your masculinity? Can men be victims? And do men suffer under these ideas? In the twentieth century, feminists have fought for the freedom of women and subsequently their emancipation. Is now the time for the emancipation of men, are they next to be set free?

An Amsterdam telemarketer of Surinamese descent suffers an existential crisis of identity when he finds fortune and belonging by using a typically Dutch name to boost his sales.

Stages is a film about loneliness, anxiety, struggle and love, which in an unconventional way shows the survival of two former lovers in their forties and their seventeen year-old son.

Sweder Speelman leads a successful life with his wife Cecile. But he realizes he's a spectator of his own life. Sweder decides to disappear to see how Cecile responds to his absence. As he observes his wife, he loses touch with reality.

A group of people gather at a Copenhagen suburban home to break all the limitations and to bring out the 'inner idiot' in themselves.

A burglar gets caught on a farm by an older woman. The religious woman, who's body is covered with ulceration, believes he is there for a reason.

Nisha, a trans woman from Pakistan working as a dancer in the Netherlands, is conflicted about proceeding with gender-affirming surgery. Every time she embraces her identity, she is subjected to strange attacks and visions. Chaos ensues when her inner demons decide to take on the demons outside.

The parents of five sisters have been married for forty years; the daughters have gathered in the family beach house to make a video for them. The encounter is marked by many confrontations as well as cheerful moments. Reminiscent of the sweet children's poems that mother recited are countered by Elsschot's Marriage: 'He thought: I'll kill her and set light to the house...' It also turns out that father had once disappeared for eighteen months, a 'secret' that the daughters have different ideas about. Brittle, an intimate film version of a play written and performed by the same actresses, is about rivalry in a family, the right to silence, but also about the need for solidarity. At the Netherlands Film Festival in 1997 the Golden Calf for Best Actress was awarded to the five actresses together.

In a small, conservative Scottish village, an oilman is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when he urges her to have sex with another.

In 2001 the Dutch TV station VPRO sent a crew to Detroit to document the goings-on, with a focus on (of course) the White Stripes. The program was directed by René Hazekamp and the interviews were conducted by Helmut Boeijen. The Dirtbombs’ Mick Collins is the closest thing the show has to an MC, we follow him around on Detroit’s People Mover as he explains the nuances of the Detroit scene.

Martha overhears Bernard and John talking about blackmail. Jacob has come up with a plan that includes a mysterious key. Brothers Bobby and Arnold, eternal rivals, both fancy Martha, but also have a soft spot for Leonie. The latter gets tasked to learn more about Jacob's plan. A dead man is discovered lying in Bernard's office late at night by somebody else searching the premises. When the main conspirators all gather at the Zevenhuis villa, John declines to cooperate...

In 2004, a urinal was voted the most influential work ever in modern art. Famed artist and provocateur Marcel Duchamp claimed to have created “Fountain”—or rather, he bought the mass-produced product and signed it—but according to some, it is the lesser-known, flamboyant Dadaist artist Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven who should take credit for transforming this much-discussed porcelain “piss pot” into art.

After his mother passes away, Rein moves to a small village in the Alps to be immersed in nature, meditate and work as a snowboard teacher. His quiet bubble bursts when his extroverted father Gijs comes to visit. But it isn’t long before Rein has had enough.

Dora Leenders is about to give birth. Since she was impregnated during a school reunion, she invites both men whom she had sex with that night to her flat to witness the birth.

A nearly 30 minute long conversation in a living room party. Unlike in a regular TV play the jabber conversation can hardly be understood. Sometimes a line or two can be picked up. There's an intermezzo when Schippers alias Jacques Plafond comes to play one of his 'modern' piano pieces, to the disgust of the party's guests, whose chattering in the end isn't far removed from the piano play.