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Presents

Directed by 

Rudolf van den Berg 

Starring 

Jeroen Spitzenberger, Karl Markovics, Nyncke Beekhuyzen, 

Katja Herbers, Nasrdin Dchar 

Produced by 

Fu Works and Cadenza Films 

San Fu Maltha, Jeroen Koolbergen and Reinier Selen 

Supported by 

VARA, UFILM, TERRAS C.V.B.A ,The Netherlands Film Fund, 

The Dutch Ministry of ECS, CoBO and Independent Films 

CAST 

Walter Süskind 

Jeroen Spitzenberger 

Ferdinand Aus der Fünten 

Karl Markovics 

Fanny Philips 

Katja Herbers 

Hanna Süskind 

Nyncke Beekhuyzen 

Yvonne Süskind 

Golda de Leon 

Felix Halverstad 

Nasrdin Dchar 

Piet Meerburg 

Tygo Gernandt 

Dr. Edwin Sluzker 

Krijn Ter Braak 

Henriëtte Pimentel 

Olga Zuiderhoek 

Sylvie 

Chava Voor In’t Holt 

Mendel Blumgarten 

Ramsey Nasr 

Officer Van Zeijtveld 

Theo Pont 

Willy Lages 

Erich Krieg 

Albert Gemmeker 

Peter Post 

Willem Henneicke 

Henk Poort 

Lenie Waterman 

Jara Lucieer 

Simon Waterman ´ Ralph Moerman 

Roosje Waterman 

Madelief Blank 

CREW 

Director 

Screenwriter 

Executive producer 

Co-producer 


Chris W. Mitchell & Rudolf van den Berg 

Pierre Spengler, Adrian Politowski, Gilles Waterkeyn 

Nadia Khamlichi, Jérémy Burdek 

Robert Kievit (VARA) 

Julien Vrebos (CVBA) 

2 

For further information: 

Beta Cinema GmbH, Press, Dorothee Stoewahse, Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 15, Mobile: + 49 170 63 84 627 

press@betafilm.com, www.betacinema.com. 

Pictures and filmclips available on ftp.betafilm.com, username: ftppress01, password: 8uV7xG3tB

Delegate producer 

Creative producer 

Director of photography 

Production designer 

Costume designer 

Sound designer 

Makeup artists 

Film editor 

Composer 

Mardou Jacobs 

Els Rientjes 

Guido van Gennep NSC 

Hubert Pouille 

Linda Bogers 

Herman Pieëte 

Ioana Angelescu, Letitia Ghenea 

Job ter Burg NCE 

Bob Zimmermann, Nando Eweg 

TECHNICAL DATA 

Running time: 118 min 

Format: DCP and 35 mm, 2:39:1 / Cinemascope 

Sound: Dolby Surround 

CONTACT INTERNATIONAL PRESS 

Beta Cinema, Dorothee Stoewahse 

Tel: + 49 170 63 84 627 

press@betafilm.com 

CONTACT WORLD SALES 

Beta Cinema GmbH, Dirk Schuerhoff/Andreas Rothbauer 

Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 80 

Fax: + 49 89 67 34 69 888 

beta@betacinema.com 

SHORT SYNOPSIS 

SÜSKIND tells the true story of Jewish resistance hero Walter Süskind (Jeroen Spitzenberger) who 

worked for the Jewish Council in Amsterdam during the Second World War. By playing a cat-andmouse 

game with SS Hauptsturmführer Aus der Fünten – played by Karl Markovics (THE 

COUNTERFEITERS) – he managed to save almost a thousand Jewish children from deportation. 

LONG SYNOPSIS 

based on true events 

Summer 1942. Walter Süskind is fired from his job at Unilever as ordered by the occupiers, but 

manages to secure a position of responsibility at the Jewish Council. More important than the income 

it provides is the fact that the job offers him and his family protection from deportation to Germany. 

One evening Walter witnesses a Jewish working-class family being torn apart during a check. While 

the parents are rousted into a truck, their eight year old daughter manages to escape with her 

younger brother. Together, Roosje and Simon have to cope with surviving in the jungle that is the 

occupied city. 




Pictures and filmclips available on ftp.betafilm.com, username: ftppress01, password: 8uV7xG3tB 

3

Their parents are delivered to the Hollandsche Schouwburg where all the unfortunate ones are 

herded together who were picked up during a raid or who have answered a summons. The man 

appointed by the Jewish Council as manager of the Schouwburg is Walter Süskind. He has to arrange 

for the detainees to be transported to Germany to work– at least, that is what he has been told. 

But when Walter discovers what is really awaiting his Jewish fellow citizens, he decides to play 

double. He befriends a high ranking SS officer, Aus Der Fünten, and at the same time cooperates 

with the underground movement. Using his position at the Schouwburg to his advantage, he gathers 

a group of co-conspirators around him. Together, they devise cunning ways to help save a large 

number of children from a certain death. 

Among those children are Simon and Roosje, the duo that wandered around the city without their 

parents for days and was ultimately picked up. They end up in the crèche of the Schouwburg, where 

they begin to understand what is at stake. There is very little time left for them to be children. 

Simon and Roosje, too, have to show courage when Walter attempts to keep them from their 

gruesome fate. After having been smuggled out of the crèche they end up at a rather sinister hiding 

address. Their attempt to escape, carefully orchestrated by Süskind, threatens to fall through. 

But it is not only the children who are in danger, the lives of Walter and his family are also at stake 

when Aus der Fünten begins to suspect that Walter is not the reliable manager he pretends to be. 

The SS man warns him but does not take any action. Aus der Fünten has become attached to his 

friendship with Walter and prefers to believe Walter really cares for him. 

Then Aus der Fünten is convinced by his superiors that Süskind himself is the brain behind a series of 

illegal activities. The SS man blows his top. Deeply hurt and feeling utterly betrayed, he takes revenge 

on the only person in Amsterdam he feels close to. Süskind’s family is rousted from their home. 

The resistance movement provides Walter with an opportunity to save himself and avoid 

deportation, but he chooses to join his wife and daughter on the train taking them east. Taunted by 

his companions in misfortune who consider him an opportunistic Nazi friend, he rides towards his 

destruction together with his family. 

But Roosje and Simon who survived thanks to him, will never forget his name: Walter Süskind, the 

man who managed to save some thousand children. 

DIRECTOR’S NOTE by Rudolf van den Berg 

SÜSKIND is a film about a hero with dirty hands. At first, Walter Süskind is like us, someone who, in 

his ordinary world, just wants to take good care of his family. But all too soon Walter’s ordinary 

world is turned upside down, and the Nazis’ anti-Jewish measures force him to choose between two 

evils. He can resign himself to being a victim or he can accept a dubious job which might shield him 

and his family from being deported. 

This choice is the first of many dilemmas Walter will be facing, each dilemma more perilous and 

diabolical than the one before. With a heavy heart, Walter decides to compromise. He accepts the 

damned job and thus takes the first step on the slope that inevitably leads to destruction. But before 

that happens, he must demonstrate something exceptional: courage. Even though Walter’s hands are 

sullied in his job, he also manages to use his position at the Jewish Council to save a considerable 





4

number of human lives. Walter realizes that even if he is not free in making his own choices, he is still 

responsible for their consequences. 

When I started working on a film about Walter Süskind, I asked myself whether there exists 

something like a Holocaust genre in cinema. Despite all the visual and dramaturgical differences, most 

films on the persecution of the Jews show a certain affinity. What connects them is the overpowering 

notion of a closed and demonic universe as well as the determination of the filmmaker to make 

tangible how incomprehensible and unimaginable the Holocaust is. 

With SÜSKIND I have attempted to join this tradition while avoiding a repetition of moves. To this 

end Chris Mitchell (my fellow scriptwriter) and I looked for the specifically Dutch elements in this 

history and also used a number of relatively unknown facts. For example, SÜSKIND sheds light on 

the until now somewhat neglected aspect of Jewish resistance to the deportations. Almost equally 

unknown is the indifference of The Netherlands to the deportation of a large number of its citizens. 

This is shocking, as is the tragic part played by the Jewish Council which unintentionally made it quite 

easy for the occupiers to get Amsterdam ‘Judenrein’ (‘cleansed of Jews’). 

The beginning of SÜSKIND is about the stigmatizing and compartmentalizing of a segment of the 

population. It is as if no one seems to realize that the path taken can only lead to doom. Thanks to a 

shrewd, official approach, an absurd and murderous plan is reduced to what appears to be a regular, 

legal governmental policy. How could that happen I suspect that whether or not you behave 

decently under extreme pressure depends on a variety of chance circumstances. Does this also mean 

that we are all capable of gruesome deeds That the Nazi is a human being like anybody else I’m 

afraid so, but it would be presumptuous to try and answer such a complex question by means of a 

film. I chose the history of SÜSKIND because it is such a moving story, full of significance, but not a 

vehicle for explicit reflection. 

I realize that one needs to be extremely careful about nuancing good and evil in this context. Fact is 

that the Nazis committed genocide with many millions of victims. It is not my intention to rationalize 

the terror, and that is why this aspect does play an important part in the film. But that the époque 

and the situation were horrifying does not automatically mean that a new movie audience can 

empathize fully with the enormous drama of the times. In my opinion reconstruction of history does 

not suffice and can even have a counterproductive effect. That is why I have striven more for 

expression than for trueness to life. More for drama than for an accurate depiction of the facts. 

Chris Mitchell and I were not always faithful to those facts, but we always acted from the notion that 

the inner truth should not be violated. To make this truth tangible we needed to omit, combine and 

fantasize. SÜSKIND had to become a compelling story, not a history lesson. That point of departure 

also played a role in the design. Esthetics and stylization are always subservient to the dramaturgy. 

Why did I want to make this film For the sake of clarity: I do not feel like someone with a calling to 

bear witness. The fact of the Holocaust presents a mystery that needs to be unlocked, a slumbering 

sensation that is difficult for me to name. I must have felt something of this sensation for the first 

time when I was a toddler and my mother told me anecdotes, often light-hearted, about going into 

hiding and yellow stars. Apparently sometimes you had to hide yourself. Just like that. Otherwise 

things might go wrong. 

Thus, my existence was colored by an irksome mixture of shame and suspicion from which came the 

need to find a form of expression for all those incomprehensible things. In 1979 I made THE ALIEN’S 

5 





PLACE: a long documentary about the question of what it meant to be Jewish. The result was a lot of 

angry people and a court case. It felt as if I had walked on taboo ground. In the thirty years since, I 

have been confronted regularly with the subject. And the more I learned the more incomprehensible 

and inconceivable it seemed to become. Through SÜSKIND, I am attempting to share my 

bewilderment about this history with others. 

PRODUCER’S NOTE - by San Fu Maltha 






When first the leading actress and shortly after, part of the Romanian set collapsed (the latter as the 

result of a storm), I asked myself why I actually wanted to produce a film like “Süskind” at this time. 

The umpteenth film about the Second World War I was thinking about this on our set in Romania 

and looked at all those waiting people, Star of David sewn onto their coats. I was overcome by 

emotion. The senselessness, the nonchalance, the horror of it and, most of all, the why and how 

oppressed me. 

According to some, The Great Evil suddenly happened, just like that. One moment you closed your 

eyes and the next, they were gassing people. Nobody knew anything about it. Not the officials who 

issued the permits, not the contractors who designed and built extermination camps. Not the factory 

owners who competed fiercely for the chance to supply gas, poles, barbed wire and special ovens to 

burn people to death in. Our proud police force and richly rewarded Netherlands Railways happily 

participated, just like the other examples of the true Dutch mercantile spirit, the “head hunters” and 

a firm called “Puls”, the so-called “moving company”. 

Once back in Holland, I noticed how in times of crisis it is all about surviving, and in such a situation 

it is better not to know too much. Like way back in the school yard when I was glad they took “the 

other”. The other, who was just a little less normal or just a bit weaker. But when did it start in 

those days Maybe with apparently innocent measures such as turning refugees into criminals, making 

it a criminal offence to take those refugees into your home, and making it seem normal for Christians 

to fear foreigners. Or maybe by ordering that everyone walking around in your work place must 

have his passport checked. Or, on the other hand, just by using one of those early regulations, passed 

nearly eighty years ago, forbidding ritual slaughter – an issue like the four earlier measures that are 

right now, again on the agenda in the Netherlands. 

Fortunately I know that times of crisis produce heroes. Not one-dimensional Hollywood heroes, but 

ordinary, flesh-and-blood people. People such as Henriëtte Pimentel, Piet Meerburg and the 

protagonist of our film, Walter Süskind. Originally Walter really wanted a job with the Jewish 

Council just to see to it that he and his family would not be sent to a hard labor camp in Germany. 

But as head of the Hollandsche Schouwburg that is exactly what he became responsible for, the 

selection and transportation of Jews without a job. He simply could not remain indifferent: willing to 

risk his own life as well as that of his family, he, with the help of others, decided to save hundreds of 

children and adults from deportation. 

And then I realized once more why I wanted to produce a film like SÜSKIND right at this moment. 

Not only because I hope just a little that it will make people remember what indifference can lead to, 

but also because things can only change when ordinary people dare to take a stand. So that not every 

columnist or politician throwing away our freedom of speech by spreading hate and intolerance can 

encourage this intolerance anymore, and so that, hopefully, no Jews or Muslims or gays are harassed 

out of their community anymore, and no children on a faraway Norwegian island can be executed 

anymore. 

6

SÜSKIND AND THE REALITY 

SÜSKIND is a feature film based on true events, which means that the film, for the benefit of the 

depiction of these events, deviates from the reality on several occasions. At least, for as far as we 

know this reality. This is always done intentionally, with a purpose. 

It is for example striking that the platform in Westerbork, where the deportees are loaded onto the 

trains, is part of a covered station. Such a station did not exist on the heath of Drenthe of course, 

but the producer was looking for an image of a terminal, as to make the horrors of the final 

destination tangible. 

Furthermore, quite a few characters are composed of different historical people; this kind of 

reduction was necessary to keep the film story organized and dramatic. In this way does Fanny 

represent an entire group of day care employees; is Piet Meerburg a mix of different representatives 

of resistance groups; and is Willem Henneicke, the Jew hunter, in this film connected with moving 

company Puls, which collected the household effects of the evacuated Jewish homes. 

That Gemmeker rides a horse through Westerbork rather than a bike has been included to give him 

a recognizable silhouette and to increase his air of power visually. So in reality Gemmeker did not do 

this, but his colleague in camp Vught, Grünewald, did. Another point in which the film differs from 

true events is concerning the assembly of the transport lists from the Theatre. The Germans were in 

charge of this and not, as the film shows, the Jewish Council. This organization did decide (by handing 

out so-called Sperren) who would not be transported. Thus the film deviates from this somewhat, in 

order to show the relative power of the Jewish Council without making the story too complicated. If 

a film wants to be able to take the viewer along, complicated explanations of affairs need to be 

reduced to the core. Dramaturgical interventions in the reality are practically inevitable with a 

historical feature film such as this one. Nevertheless, on main points the feature film SÜSKIND tries 

to stay close to the essence of the true events – the producers hope the viewer, even the wellinformed 

viewer, will see and experience this. 

ABOUT WALTER SÜSKIND - background information 

Nazi-Germany occupied The Netherlands from May 1940 till May 1945. In 1942, the Dutch Jews 

were told they would have to leave for Germany in order to work in labor camps. Some hundred 

people at a time, the Jews were packed into the “Hollandsche Schouwburg” (the “Dutch Theatre”) in 

Amsterdam. From here they were taken by train to the transit camp “Westerbork” in the North- 

East of Holland. Here the trains left - not for Germany as the deportees had thought - but for 

Poland. 

It was illegal not to report to the Schouwburg or to go into hiding. Jews who refused to leave their 

houses were picked up during raids, violent military operations. In the Schouwburg parents were 

separated from their children. The children were put up in a nursery (the “Crèche”) on the other 

side of the street. They would be reunited at the moment of departure to the Westerbork camp. 

The Germans had installed a Jewish Council that was ordered to supervise the deportations and 

make everything proceed smoothly. The Jewish Council appointed the German Jew Walter Süskind 

as manager of the Schouwburg. Walter and his wife Hanna had fled Germany in 1938 hoping to be 

safe in Holland. Their daughter Yvonne was born in Holland in 1939. 

Soon after Walter had started his job in the Schouwburg, in 1942, he began to doubt the legitimacy 





7

of his actions, and he started working together with various resistance groups that were active in the 

Schouwburg. When he finally realized that the labor camps in Germany were, in fact, death camps, he 

intensified his operations with the resistance, organizing large scale escape projects, especially for the 

children. Faking a friendship with the Nazi in charge of deportations, SS captain Ferdinand Aus der 

Fünten, he managed for some time to divert the attention of the Germans from the illegal 

operations. He even convinced Aus der Fünten a few times to sign exemption orders. 

During this time, some 1000 children and adults were smuggled away from the Schouwburg, to go 

into hiding somewhere in the Dutch countryside. One of the tricks was to substitute dolls or rolledup 

blankets for baby’s or children at the moment of departure to Westerbork, or during walks to a 

park. 

That way the numbers would always add up. 

In the end, the whole scheme was exposed and all remaining Jews were picked up at the same time 

and sent to Westerbork and Poland. Walter Süskind and his family, too, did not escape this fate. 

Hanna and Yvonne were murdered in Auschwitz in October 1943 upon arrival. 

Walter died during one of the “death marches” in Central Europe when the Nazis forced the 

prisoners to walk away from the camps. Everybody who was too weak or ill to walk was simply shot. 

Approximately only 76% of Dutch Jews did not survive the Second World War, by far the lowest 

percentage in Western Europe. 

ABOUT THE CAST 

JEROEN SPITZENBERGER is Walter Süskind 

Jeroen Spitzenberger (1976) is best known internationally for his supporting role in the Academy 

Award-nominated film TWIN SISTERS, which went on to be a hit with critics and film lovers 

worldwide. Graduating from the Institute of Arts in 1998, Jeroen Spitzenberger quickly became a 

beloved stage and screen actor. His past credits include roles in local box office hits such as LOVE IS 

ALL and THE PREACHER as well as popular TV series such as “Bloedverwanten” and “Sorry, 

Minister.” 

Jeroen Spitzenberger is as at home on the stage as on the set. He is one of the key actors of the 

National Theatre in The Hague. He recently toured with P.P.P. Pier Paulo Pasolini, about the famous 

Italian film director, and is currently appearing in Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

KARL MARKOVICS is Ferdinand aus der Fünften 

Ferdinand Aus der Fünten, Walter’s big antagonist, is head of the department of the SS in charge of 

the deportation of the Dutch Jews. He is a rather lonely, not too intelligent man of humble origins 

who gladly puts up with Walter’s (faked) sympathy. Their pleasant drinking friendship abruptly comes 

to an end when the SS member finds out that Süskind abuses his trust for illegal activities. 

The Austrian actor Karl Markovics broke through with the lead role in THE COUNTERFEITERS, the 

film that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008. He played a variety of 

roles in the theatre and in dozens of Austrian and German television films and series and acted 

recently along with Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger at UNKNOWN IDENTY as well as in Joseph 

8 





Vilsmaier’s NAGA PARBAT and Jo Baier’s HENRY IV. 

He won several awards for his roles in feature films and made his debut as film director in 2011. Karl 

Markovics’ debut BREATHING was received several awards in 2011, among others in Cannes with 

the Label Europe Cinema for ‘Best European Film’ during the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs. 

NYNCKE BEEKHUYZEN is HANNA SÜSKIND 

Hanna is Walter’s wife, sensitive and smart. Not only is she mad about Walter, but she also supports 

him through thick and thin in his risky illegal activities. 

Nyncke Beekhuyzen (1980) studied at The Amsterdam School for Drama and Contemporary Music 

Theatre. She became famous for her roles in the television series “I.C.” and “Lotte,” in which she 

played the title role for two years. In addition to this Nyncke Beekhuyzen starred in television and 

film productions such as “Julia’s Tango,” “Verborgen Gebreken,” “Spoorloos Verdwenen” and the 

television film “Gebroken Rood.” 

Nyncke Beekhuyzen can often be seen in the theatre. She played in the music theatre production 

“Een Zomerzotheid,” “The GVR,” “Sexual Perversity” and “Gebroeders Leeuwenhart.” In the 

summer of 2011 she performed the show “Kunnen Jullie Mij Thuisbrengen” at the Theatre Festival 

Boulevard with her own theatre company En Consorten. From November 2011 on Nyncke 

Beekhuyzen will play one of the lead roles in the play “De Eetclub” based on the novel of the same 

name by Saskia Noort. 

KATJA HERBERS is Fanny Phillips 

Fanny is the assistant of Mrs. Pimentel in the day-care centre across the street from the Dutch 

Theatre. She is young and beautiful. She plays a key role in the final scene of the story, when the 

children smuggled from the Theatre barely escape death. 

Katja Herbers is an internationally successful actress. After finishing grammar school she graduated 

from The Amsterdam School for Drama and Contemporary Music Theatre in 2005. She also studied 

at the HB Studio in New York. During her studies she already appeared in several films, such as 

PETER BELL and the American film BRUSH WITH FATE. 

She worked together with famous directors such as Alex van Warmerdam, Ben Sombogaart, 

Antoinette Beumer, Marc de Cloe, Ursula Antoniak and Ivo van Hove. 

She is connected to the Munich Kammerspiele of Johan Simons. She is also connected to Theu 

Boermans, under whose direction she also performed the generally praised monologue “Fräulein 

Else”, which she is currently performing in German. Some films in which Katja appears are: LOFT, 

THE STORM, AMSTERDAM, SONNY BOY, BEAUTIFUL LIFE and the award-winning television film 

“De Uitverkorene,” for which she received an honorable mention at the Golden Calfs. 

CREW 

RUDOLF VAN DEN BERG – director 

Award winning writer/director Rudolf van den Berg has been making films and documentaries for 

over 30 years now. Last year, director Rudolf van den Berg’s film TIRZA – based on the best-selling 

novel by Arnon Grunberg – was the Dutch entry for the Academy Awards. 





9

Van den Berg on the film SÜSKIND: "The Shoah (Holocaust) has always felt like a puzzle in my life 

that has to be solved somehow. This is not possible working from behind my desk. Only in the 

cinema, I think, can I get even a glimpse of the horror that took place just a few years before my 

birth. By making SÜSKIND, I hope to be able to share my total perplexity about this 

incomprehensible chapter in history with an audience. When the script was finished I began to see a 

movie that is not only about history, but also about us, about the time we are living in, about our 

existence in a world where stigma and genocide have almost become stereotypical dimensions of 

international politics." 

2010 Tirza 

Golden Calf Best Director, Nomination Golden Calf Best Film, Dutch Entry Academy Awards 

2002 Snapshots 

Romantic comedy with Burt Reynolds, Julie Christie and Carmen Chaplin. 

1997 For my Baby 

Ghost story/psychological drama 

Golden Calf Best Director, Nomination Best Film and Nomination Grolsch Award 

1996 The Cold Light of Day 

Thriller based on “Das Versprechen” by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. With Richard E. Grant. 

1992 De Johnsons 

Horrorfilm with Monique van de Ven, Kenneth Herdigein and Esmée de la Bretonnière. 

1989 Evenings 

Based on the novel by Gerard Reve, with Thom Hoffman & Rijk de Gooyer. 

Golden Calf Best Film & Best Male Actor, Nomination Golden Calf Best Director, several awards on foreign 

festivals 

1987 Looking for Eileen 

Based on the novel by Leon de Winter, with Lysette Anthony and Thom Hoffman. 

1984 Bastille 

Based on the novel by Leon de Winter, with Derek de Lint, Geert de Jong and Evelyne Dress. 

Golden Calf Best Director 

ABOUT THE PRODUCERS 

SAN FU MALTHA – Fu Works 

Fu Works Productions was found in 1995 by San Fu Maltha and has grown into one of the most 

leading feature film production companies of the Netherlands. Fu Works is an independent and 

internationally oriented production company that produces feature films, documentaries and tv 

series. 

Fu Works produced several feature films, such as the successful films TIRZA (Dutch entry for 

Academy Awards), WINTER IN WARTIME (shortlist best foreign film - Academy Awards), SPY OF 

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ORANGE, LOVE IS ALL, BLACK BOOK (shortlist best foreign film - Academy Awards), COSTA!, 

PHILEINE SAYS SORRY, TOO FAT TOO FURIOUS and IN ORANGE. The company is not only 

interested in films with a wider audience appeal, but has also produced award winning documentaries 

like 4 ELEMENTS and MADE IN KOREA and special projects like CARMEN OF THE NORTH, 

KICKS and the Finnish-Chinese-Dutch cult movie JADE WARRIOR. 

Besides World War II drama SÜSKIND, coming-of-age drama MILO will have it’s premier in Spring 

2012. MILO is a co production with Irish producer Samson Films and directed by first-timers and 

Roel and Berend Boorsma. Furthermore road movie PORTABLE LIFE and horror/adventure 3d 

movie AMPHIBIOUS will be released. THE BOMBARDMENT and KENAU are in pre production and 

will be filmed in 2012. 

Fu Works has many productions in development: NADRA, WESTERLING, PIM, BIRDS WITHOUT 

WINGS, CLARENCE SEEDORF, A HAPPY LIFE, THE LITTLE CAPTAIN, ALMOST DEAD, 

THERESA IMMACULATA, THE HIDDEN FORCE, TOOS and NEWYEAR. 

Fu Works is not only active in the Dutch film industry. Since 2005, owner San Fu Maltha is involved 

in the Australian film and television company New Holland Pictures as a major shareholder. New 

Holland Pictures produced SEPARATION CITY and UNFINISHED SKY, a remake of the Dutch 

Golden Globe nominee THE POLISH BRIDE. In 2006 Maltha set up a joint venture with exhibitor 

group Blitz in Indonesia, called Jive. Jive is an Indonesian distribution company. Blitz is an exhibitor 

with multiplexes all over Java. 

JEROEN KOOLBERGEN – Cadenza Films 

The film production company Cadenza Films bv was set up at the end of 1999 and incorporated 

beginning of 2000 by Dutch director Rudolf van den Berg and international producer Pierre Spengler 

(Superman, The Three Musketeers, Cannes Palm d’Or-award winning Underground). 

The shares of the company are equally owned by Rudolf van den Berg, Jeroen Koolbergen and Pierre 

Spengler. Managing director and producer is Jeroen Koolbergen. Pierre Spengler acts as producer 

and supervisor. The aim of Cadenza Films is to produce feature movies in the English and the Dutch 

language, which combine quality with realistic commercial possibilities. 

Cadenza’s first English spoken feature film SNAPSHOTS – with Burt Reynolds and Julie Christie in 

the leads – premiered in the summer of 2002. 

TIRZA, based on the novel by bestselling Dutch author Arnon Grunberg, opened at the Dutch Film 

Festival in October 2010 to rave reviews and won a Golden Film award (100.000 visitors) within a 

few weeks. The film was also awarded Golden Calfs for best direction and best editing. TIRZA was 

the Dutch submission for the Academy Awards 2011. The film was produced in co-production with 

Fu Works Productions. 

At the moment Cadenza Films is developing a number of promising Dutch and international projects. 

SPINOZA will be a large scale biopic of the famous 17th century Dutch philosopher. ORESTES is 

Rudolf van den Berg´s adaptation of Aeschylus´ Oresteia and is an epic story about murder, family 

issues and the origin of justice and democracy. 





11

REINIER SELEN 

Producer Reinier Selen was born in Venlo in 1972. He graduated as a documentary director from 

Kunstacademie St. Joost (St. Joost’s Art Academy) in Breda in 1996, and founded Rinkel Film 

Productions BV in 1997. 

In the following years Selen produced nine movies for TV, the crime series Access Denied and the 

award winning feature films OFF SCREEN and BLOOD BROTHERS. He initiated and produced 

GODFORSAKEN which won the Golden Film award within four weeks. The film was sold to 12 

other countries and won many awards including three Golden Calves. 

In 2005, Selen took part in the creative writing programme at the Binger FilmLab and in 2006 he 

took part in the European EAVE Programme. Selen was one of the Golden Calf Jury members at the 

2007 Dutch Film Festival and represented the Netherlands as ‘Producer On The Move’ at the 2008 

Cannes International Film Festival. The latter resulted in Selen receiving an invitation for participating 

in the Producers Lab Toronto 2010. 

Selen also produced the successful NOTHING PERSONAL which has won many awards including six 

awards at the 2009 Locarno Film Festival, four Golden Calves at the 2009 Dutch Film Festival and it 

also received two nominations during the 2010 European Film Awards. 

Selen is a member of the Dutch Producers Association (NVS) and of the European Film Academy. 

BETA CINEMA – World Sales 

Beta Cinema has established itself as a "boutique-operation" for independent feature films with 

strong theatrical potential. Beta Cinema's philosophy is to keep its selective acquisition policy of 10 

to 12 titles per year in order to fully develop the theatrical potential of each title according to its 

individual character. 

Beta Cinema’s portfolio includes outstanding productions like Academy Award 2011-nominated IN 

DARKNESS, multiple African Academy Award 2011-winning VIVA RIVA, multiple Spanish Goya 

Awards 2011-winning BLACK BREAD, German Film Award-winning VINCENT WANTS TO SEA 

(2011), ALMANYA (2011), JOHN RABE (2009) and FOUR MINUTES (2007), Cannes 2008 Jury 

Prize-winning and Academy Award-nominated IL DIVO, Academy Award 2007-winning THE 

COUNTERFEITERS, Academy Award 2007 nominated MONGOL, Academy Award 2006-winning 

THE LIVES OF OTHERS and the Academy Award 2004-nominated DOWNFALL. 





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