Focus: The Netherlands
Since the French New Wave of the '50s and '60s, an emergence of promising new filmmakers from a particular country has piqued particular interest and attention, especially when it may be a wave that has rarely crested as high before. In that vein, this year's Mill Valley Film Festival recognizes and celebrates the talents of Dutch filmmakers in a special FOCUS: THE NETHERLANDS section that features several premieres and spans the World Cinema, V(ision)Fest and Children's FilmFest categories of the Festival.
Feature films include Erik van Zuylen's surreal and twisty The Mystery of the Sardine (making its North American premiere): Patrice Toye's Wanted: Man (US premiere), originally produced for Dutch television, but unlike anything found on American TV; and Live! (US premiere) by Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen, the engrossing story of a middle-aged woman who lets go of a haunted past in order to live fully in the present.
The Children's FilmFest presents Martin Koolhoven's Bonkers (US premiere) about a little girl and the elephants she loves; Sander Francken's Knowledge for Life in which a story sung by a griot at a campfire is acted out by a young Mali boy; and the powerful short Ayla, the Tsunami Girl, by Wilma Ligthart, about a Dutch girl who has survived a tsunami and heals herself by making art.
And in this year's eclectic V(ision)Fest selection, defying all classification, is the Dutch co-production Figner: The End of a Silent Century (North American premiere) by Nathalie Alonso Casale, a brilliant blend of reality, memory and stunning footage from old Soviet films in the story of analog soundtrack designer Edgar Figner.
Program sponsored by the Consulate General of the Netherlands, Los Angeles
A complete list of films in the FOCUS: THE NETHERLANDS section:
Ayla, the Tsunami Girl
Netherlands 2005 15 mins. DIR Wilma Ligthart
A Dutch girl who has survived a tsunami heals herself by making art.Bonkers
Netherlands 2005 83 mins. DIR Martin Koolhoven
Little Bonnie confronts loss, her ÒbonkersÓ mother and a world into which she doesn't fit using instinct and resiliency, traits she shares with the elephants she adores.Figner: The End of a Silent Century
Netherlands/France/UK/Russia 2006 90 mins. DIR Nathalie Alonso Casale
The finest and last practioner of a fading art, analog soundtrack designer Edgar Figner is cast aside by contemporary Russian society and retreats into the past, where reality, memory and stunning footage from Soviet films blend into an intimate portrait of the post-Soviet Russian experience.Knowledge for Life
Netherlands/Mali 2005 29 mins. DIR Sander Francken
A story beautifully sung at a campfire by a silhouetted griot is acted out with grace and harmony by a young Mali boy who must find the answer to ÒWhat is the knowledge for life?Ó set by his Koran teacher.Live!
Netherlands 2005 108 mins. DIR Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen
The engrossing story of a middle-aged woman who lets go of a haunted past in order to live fully and deeply in the present.The Mystery of the Sardine
Netherlands 2005 103 mins. DIR Erik van Zuylen
An exploding pooch inexplicably destroys Professor Tim Boerhave's legs, setting in motion this surreal, twisty story of broken people and fractured families struggling with disruption, crime and punishment, memory and dreams.Wanted: Man
Netherlands 2005 83 mins. DIR Patrice Toye
Intent on resuscitating his mother's romantic life, Bas places a classified ad. Shocked by her precocious son's bold gesture, Rosalie begins to come to terms with her fractured family, and to imagine a love life that makes space for her eccentric son.
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