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Presents
Directed by<br />
Rudolf van den Berg<br />
Starring<br />
Jeroen Spitzenberger, Karl Markovics, Nyncke Beekhuyzen,<br />
Katja Herbers, Nasrdin Dchar<br />
Produced by<br />
Fu Works and Cadenza Films<br />
San Fu Maltha, Jeroen Koolbergen and Reinier Selen<br />
Supported by<br />
VARA, UFILM, TERRAS C.V.B.A ,The Netherlands Film Fund,<br />
The Dutch Ministry of ECS, CoBO and Independent Films<br />
CAST<br />
Walter Süskind<br />
Jeroen Spitzenberger<br />
Ferdinand Aus der Fünten<br />
Karl Markovics<br />
Fanny Philips<br />
Katja Herbers<br />
Hanna Süskind<br />
Nyncke Beekhuyzen<br />
Yvonne Süskind<br />
Golda de Leon<br />
Felix Halverstad<br />
Nasrdin Dchar<br />
Piet Meerburg<br />
Tygo Gernandt<br />
Dr. Edwin Sluzker<br />
Krijn Ter Braak<br />
Henriëtte Pimentel<br />
Olga Zuiderhoek<br />
Sylvie<br />
Chava Voor In’t Holt<br />
Mendel Blumgarten<br />
Ramsey Nasr<br />
Officer Van Zeijtveld<br />
Theo Pont<br />
Willy Lages<br />
Erich Krieg<br />
Albert Gemmeker<br />
Peter Post<br />
Willem Henneicke<br />
Henk Poort<br />
Lenie Waterman<br />
Jara Lucieer<br />
Simon Waterman ´ Ralph Moerman<br />
Roosje Waterman<br />
Madelief Blank<br />
CREW<br />
Director<br />
Screenwriter<br />
Executive producer<br />
Co-producer<br />
Rudolf van den Berg<br />
Chris W. Mitchell & Rudolf van den Berg<br />
Pierre Spengler, Adrian Politowski, Gilles Waterkeyn<br />
Nadia Khamlichi, Jérémy Burdek<br />
Robert Kievit (VARA)<br />
Julien Vrebos (CVBA)<br />
2<br />
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Delegate producer<br />
Creative producer<br />
Director of photography<br />
Production designer<br />
Costume designer<br />
Sound designer<br />
Makeup artists<br />
Film editor<br />
Composer<br />
Mardou Jacobs<br />
Els Rientjes<br />
Guido van Gennep NSC<br />
Hubert Pouille<br />
Linda Bogers<br />
Herman Pieëte<br />
Ioana Angelescu, Letitia Ghenea<br />
Job ter Burg NCE<br />
Bob Zimmermann, Nando Eweg<br />
TECHNICAL DATA<br />
Running time: 118 min<br />
Format: DCP and 35 mm, 2:39:1 / Cinemascope<br />
Sound: Dolby Surround<br />
CONTACT INTERNATIONAL PRESS<br />
Beta Cinema, Dorothee Stoewahse<br />
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CONTACT WORLD SALES<br />
Beta Cinema GmbH, Dirk Schuerhoff/Andreas Rothbauer<br />
Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 80<br />
Fax: + 49 89 67 34 69 888<br />
beta@betacinema.com<br />
SHORT SYNOPSIS<br />
SÜSKIND tells the true story of Jewish resistance hero Walter Süskind (Jeroen Spitzenberger) who<br />
worked for the Jewish Council in Amsterdam during the Second World War. By playing a cat-andmouse<br />
game with SS Hauptsturmführer Aus der Fünten – played by Karl Markovics (THE<br />
COUNTERFEITERS) – he managed to save almost a thousand Jewish children from deportation.<br />
LONG SYNOPSIS<br />
based on true events<br />
Summer 1942. Walter Süskind is fired from his job at Unilever as ordered by the occupiers, but<br />
manages to secure a position of responsibility at the Jewish Council. More important than the income<br />
it provides is the fact that the job offers him and his family protection from deportation to Germany.<br />
One evening Walter witnesses a Jewish working-class family being torn apart during a check. While<br />
the parents are rousted into a truck, their eight year old daughter manages to escape with her<br />
younger brother. Together, Roosje and Simon have to cope with surviving in the jungle that is the<br />
occupied city.<br />
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3
Their parents are delivered to the Hollandsche Schouwburg where all the unfortunate ones are<br />
herded together who were picked up during a raid or who have answered a summons. The man<br />
appointed by the Jewish Council as manager of the Schouwburg is Walter Süskind. He has to arrange<br />
for the detainees to be transported to Germany to work– at least, that is what he has been told.<br />
But when Walter discovers what is really awaiting his Jewish fellow citizens, he decides to play<br />
double. He befriends a high ranking SS officer, Aus Der Fünten, and at the same time cooperates<br />
with the underground movement. Using his position at the Schouwburg to his advantage, he gathers<br />
a group of co-conspirators around him. Together, they devise cunning ways to help save a large<br />
number of children from a certain death.<br />
Among those children are Simon and Roosje, the duo that wandered around the city without their<br />
parents for days and was ultimately picked up. They end up in the crèche of the Schouwburg, where<br />
they begin to understand what is at stake. There is very little time left for them to be children.<br />
Simon and Roosje, too, have to show courage when Walter attempts to keep them from their<br />
gruesome fate. After having been smuggled out of the crèche they end up at a rather sinister hiding<br />
address. Their attempt to escape, carefully orchestrated by Süskind, threatens to fall through.<br />
But it is not only the children who are in danger, the lives of Walter and his family are also at stake<br />
when Aus der Fünten begins to suspect that Walter is not the reliable manager he pretends to be.<br />
The SS man warns him but does not take any action. Aus der Fünten has become attached to his<br />
friendship with Walter and prefers to believe Walter really cares for him.<br />
Then Aus der Fünten is convinced by his superiors that Süskind himself is the brain behind a series of<br />
illegal activities. The SS man blows his top. Deeply hurt and feeling utterly betrayed, he takes revenge<br />
on the only person in Amsterdam he feels close to. Süskind’s family is rousted from their home.<br />
The resistance movement provides Walter with an opportunity to save himself and avoid<br />
deportation, but he chooses to join his wife and daughter on the train taking them east. Taunted by<br />
his companions in misfortune who consider him an opportunistic Nazi friend, he rides towards his<br />
destruction together with his family.<br />
But Roosje and Simon who survived thanks to him, will never forget his name: Walter Süskind, the<br />
man who managed to save some thousand children.<br />
DIRECTOR’S NOTE by Rudolf van den Berg<br />
SÜSKIND is a film about a hero with dirty hands. At first, Walter Süskind is like us, someone who, in<br />
his ordinary world, just wants to take good care of his family. But all too soon Walter’s ordinary<br />
world is turned upside down, and the Nazis’ anti-Jewish measures force him to choose between two<br />
evils. He can resign himself to being a victim or he can accept a dubious job which might shield him<br />
and his family from being deported.<br />
This choice is the first of many dilemmas Walter will be facing, each dilemma more perilous and<br />
diabolical than the one before. With a heavy heart, Walter decides to compromise. He accepts the<br />
damned job and thus takes the first step on the slope that inevitably leads to destruction. But before<br />
that happens, he must demonstrate something exceptional: courage. Even though Walter’s hands are<br />
sullied in his job, he also manages to use his position at the Jewish Council to save a considerable<br />
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4
number of human lives. Walter realizes that even if he is not free in making his own choices, he is still<br />
responsible for their consequences.<br />
When I started working on a film about Walter Süskind, I asked myself whether there exists<br />
something like a Holocaust genre in cinema. Despite all the visual and dramaturgical differences, most<br />
films on the persecution of the Jews show a certain affinity. What connects them is the overpowering<br />
notion of a closed and demonic universe as well as the determination of the filmmaker to make<br />
tangible how incomprehensible and unimaginable the Holocaust is.<br />
With SÜSKIND I have attempted to join this tradition while avoiding a repetition of moves. To this<br />
end Chris Mitchell (my fellow scriptwriter) and I looked for the specifically Dutch elements in this<br />
history and also used a number of relatively unknown facts. For example, SÜSKIND sheds light on<br />
the until now somewhat neglected aspect of Jewish resistance to the deportations. Almost equally<br />
unknown is the indifference of The Netherlands to the deportation of a large number of its citizens.<br />
This is shocking, as is the tragic part played by the Jewish Council which unintentionally made it quite<br />
easy for the occupiers to get Amsterdam ‘Judenrein’ (‘cleansed of Jews’).<br />
The beginning of SÜSKIND is about the stigmatizing and compartmentalizing of a segment of the<br />
population. It is as if no one seems to realize that the path taken can only lead to doom. Thanks to a<br />
shrewd, official approach, an absurd and murderous plan is reduced to what appears to be a regular,<br />
legal governmental policy. How could that happen I suspect that whether or not you behave<br />
decently under extreme pressure depends on a variety of chance circumstances. Does this also mean<br />
that we are all capable of gruesome deeds That the Nazi is a human being like anybody else I’m<br />
afraid so, but it would be presumptuous to try and answer such a complex question by means of a<br />
film. I chose the history of SÜSKIND because it is such a moving story, full of significance, but not a<br />
vehicle for explicit reflection.<br />
I realize that one needs to be extremely careful about nuancing good and evil in this context. Fact is<br />
that the Nazis committed genocide with many millions of victims. It is not my intention to rationalize<br />
the terror, and that is why this aspect does play an important part in the film. But that the époque<br />
and the situation were horrifying does not automatically mean that a new movie audience can<br />
empathize fully with the enormous drama of the times. In my opinion reconstruction of history does<br />
not suffice and can even have a counterproductive effect. That is why I have striven more for<br />
expression than for trueness to life. More for drama than for an accurate depiction of the facts.<br />
Chris Mitchell and I were not always faithful to those facts, but we always acted from the notion that<br />
the inner truth should not be violated. To make this truth tangible we needed to omit, combine and<br />
fantasize. SÜSKIND had to become a compelling story, not a history lesson. That point of departure<br />
also played a role in the design. Esthetics and stylization are always subservient to the dramaturgy.<br />
Why did I want to make this film For the sake of clarity: I do not feel like someone with a calling to<br />
bear witness. The fact of the Holocaust presents a mystery that needs to be unlocked, a slumbering<br />
sensation that is difficult for me to name. I must have felt something of this sensation for the first<br />
time when I was a toddler and my mother told me anecdotes, often light-hearted, about going into<br />
hiding and yellow stars. Apparently sometimes you had to hide yourself. Just like that. Otherwise<br />
things might go wrong.<br />
Thus, my existence was colored by an irksome mixture of shame and suspicion from which came the<br />
need to find a form of expression for all those incomprehensible things. In 1979 I made THE ALIEN’S<br />
5<br />
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PLACE: a long documentary about the question of what it meant to be Jewish. The result was a lot of<br />
angry people and a court case. It felt as if I had walked on taboo ground. In the thirty years since, I<br />
have been confronted regularly with the subject. And the more I learned the more incomprehensible<br />
and inconceivable it seemed to become. Through SÜSKIND, I am attempting to share my<br />
bewilderment about this history with others.<br />
PRODUCER’S NOTE - by San Fu Maltha<br />
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Rudolf van den Berg<br />
When first the leading actress and shortly after, part of the Romanian set collapsed (the latter as the<br />
result of a storm), I asked myself why I actually wanted to produce a film like “Süskind” at this time.<br />
The umpteenth film about the Second World War I was thinking about this on our set in Romania<br />
and looked at all those waiting people, Star of David sewn onto their coats. I was overcome by<br />
emotion. The senselessness, the nonchalance, the horror of it and, most of all, the why and how<br />
oppressed me.<br />
According to some, The Great Evil suddenly happened, just like that. One moment you closed your<br />
eyes and the next, they were gassing people. Nobody knew anything about it. Not the officials who<br />
issued the permits, not the contractors who designed and built extermination camps. Not the factory<br />
owners who competed fiercely for the chance to supply gas, poles, barbed wire and special ovens to<br />
burn people to death in. Our proud police force and richly rewarded Netherlands Railways happily<br />
participated, just like the other examples of the true Dutch mercantile spirit, the “head hunters” and<br />
a firm called “Puls”, the so-called “moving company”.<br />
Once back in Holland, I noticed how in times of crisis it is all about surviving, and in such a situation<br />
it is better not to know too much. Like way back in the school yard when I was glad they took “the<br />
other”. The other, who was just a little less normal or just a bit weaker. But when did it start in<br />
those days Maybe with apparently innocent measures such as turning refugees into criminals, making<br />
it a criminal offence to take those refugees into your home, and making it seem normal for Christians<br />
to fear foreigners. Or maybe by ordering that everyone walking around in your work place must<br />
have his passport checked. Or, on the other hand, just by using one of those early regulations, passed<br />
nearly eighty years ago, forbidding ritual slaughter – an issue like the four earlier measures that are<br />
right now, again on the agenda in the Netherlands.<br />
Fortunately I know that times of crisis produce heroes. Not one-dimensional Hollywood heroes, but<br />
ordinary, flesh-and-blood people. People such as Henriëtte Pimentel, Piet Meerburg and the<br />
protagonist of our film, Walter Süskind. Originally Walter really wanted a job with the Jewish<br />
Council just to see to it that he and his family would not be sent to a hard labor camp in Germany.<br />
But as head of the Hollandsche Schouwburg that is exactly what he became responsible for, the<br />
selection and transportation of Jews without a job. He simply could not remain indifferent: willing to<br />
risk his own life as well as that of his family, he, with the help of others, decided to save hundreds of<br />
children and adults from deportation.<br />
And then I realized once more why I wanted to produce a film like SÜSKIND right at this moment.<br />
Not only because I hope just a little that it will make people remember what indifference can lead to,<br />
but also because things can only change when ordinary people dare to take a stand. So that not every<br />
columnist or politician throwing away our freedom of speech by spreading hate and intolerance can<br />
encourage this intolerance anymore, and so that, hopefully, no Jews or Muslims or gays are harassed<br />
out of their community anymore, and no children on a faraway Norwegian island can be executed<br />
anymore.<br />
6
SÜSKIND AND THE REALITY<br />
SÜSKIND is a feature film based on true events, which means that the film, for the benefit of the<br />
depiction of these events, deviates from the reality on several occasions. At least, for as far as we<br />
know this reality. This is always done intentionally, with a purpose.<br />
It is for example striking that the platform in Westerbork, where the deportees are loaded onto the<br />
trains, is part of a covered station. Such a station did not exist on the heath of Drenthe of course,<br />
but the producer was looking for an image of a terminal, as to make the horrors of the final<br />
destination tangible.<br />
Furthermore, quite a few characters are composed of different historical people; this kind of<br />
reduction was necessary to keep the film story organized and dramatic. In this way does Fanny<br />
represent an entire group of day care employees; is Piet Meerburg a mix of different representatives<br />
of resistance groups; and is Willem Henneicke, the Jew hunter, in this film connected with moving<br />
company Puls, which collected the household effects of the evacuated Jewish homes.<br />
That Gemmeker rides a horse through Westerbork rather than a bike has been included to give him<br />
a recognizable silhouette and to increase his air of power visually. So in reality Gemmeker did not do<br />
this, but his colleague in camp Vught, Grünewald, did. Another point in which the film differs from<br />
true events is concerning the assembly of the transport lists from the Theatre. The Germans were in<br />
charge of this and not, as the film shows, the Jewish Council. This organization did decide (by handing<br />
out so-called Sperren) who would not be transported. Thus the film deviates from this somewhat, in<br />
order to show the relative power of the Jewish Council without making the story too complicated. If<br />
a film wants to be able to take the viewer along, complicated explanations of affairs need to be<br />
reduced to the core. Dramaturgical interventions in the reality are practically inevitable with a<br />
historical feature film such as this one. Nevertheless, on main points the feature film SÜSKIND tries<br />
to stay close to the essence of the true events – the producers hope the viewer, even the wellinformed<br />
viewer, will see and experience this.<br />
ABOUT WALTER SÜSKIND - background information<br />
Nazi-Germany occupied The Netherlands from May 1940 till May 1945. In 1942, the Dutch Jews<br />
were told they would have to leave for Germany in order to work in labor camps. Some hundred<br />
people at a time, the Jews were packed into the “Hollandsche Schouwburg” (the “Dutch Theatre”) in<br />
Amsterdam. From here they were taken by train to the transit camp “Westerbork” in the North-<br />
East of Holland. Here the trains left - not for Germany as the deportees had thought - but for<br />
Poland.<br />
It was illegal not to report to the Schouwburg or to go into hiding. Jews who refused to leave their<br />
houses were picked up during raids, violent military operations. In the Schouwburg parents were<br />
separated from their children. The children were put up in a nursery (the “Crèche”) on the other<br />
side of the street. They would be reunited at the moment of departure to the Westerbork camp.<br />
The Germans had installed a Jewish Council that was ordered to supervise the deportations and<br />
make everything proceed smoothly. The Jewish Council appointed the German Jew Walter Süskind<br />
as manager of the Schouwburg. Walter and his wife Hanna had fled Germany in 1938 hoping to be<br />
safe in Holland. Their daughter Yvonne was born in Holland in 1939.<br />
Soon after Walter had started his job in the Schouwburg, in 1942, he began to doubt the legitimacy<br />
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7
of his actions, and he started working together with various resistance groups that were active in the<br />
Schouwburg. When he finally realized that the labor camps in Germany were, in fact, death camps, he<br />
intensified his operations with the resistance, organizing large scale escape projects, especially for the<br />
children. Faking a friendship with the Nazi in charge of deportations, SS captain Ferdinand Aus der<br />
Fünten, he managed for some time to divert the attention of the Germans from the illegal<br />
operations. He even convinced Aus der Fünten a few times to sign exemption orders.<br />
During this time, some 1000 children and adults were smuggled away from the Schouwburg, to go<br />
into hiding somewhere in the Dutch countryside. One of the tricks was to substitute dolls or rolledup<br />
blankets for baby’s or children at the moment of departure to Westerbork, or during walks to a<br />
park.<br />
That way the numbers would always add up.<br />
In the end, the whole scheme was exposed and all remaining Jews were picked up at the same time<br />
and sent to Westerbork and Poland. Walter Süskind and his family, too, did not escape this fate.<br />
Hanna and Yvonne were murdered in Auschwitz in October 1943 upon arrival.<br />
Walter died during one of the “death marches” in Central Europe when the Nazis forced the<br />
prisoners to walk away from the camps. Everybody who was too weak or ill to walk was simply shot.<br />
Approximately only 76% of Dutch Jews did not survive the Second World War, by far the lowest<br />
percentage in Western Europe.<br />
ABOUT THE CAST<br />
JEROEN SPITZENBERGER is Walter Süskind<br />
Jeroen Spitzenberger (1976) is best known internationally for his supporting role in the Academy<br />
Award-nominated film TWIN SISTERS, which went on to be a hit with critics and film lovers<br />
worldwide. Graduating from the Institute of Arts in 1998, Jeroen Spitzenberger quickly became a<br />
beloved stage and screen actor. His past credits include roles in local box office hits such as LOVE IS<br />
ALL and THE PREACHER as well as popular TV series such as “Bloedverwanten” and “Sorry,<br />
Minister.”<br />
Jeroen Spitzenberger is as at home on the stage as on the set. He is one of the key actors of the<br />
National Theatre in The Hague. He recently toured with P.P.P. Pier Paulo Pasolini, about the famous<br />
Italian film director, and is currently appearing in Midsummer Night’s Dream.<br />
KARL MARKOVICS is Ferdinand aus der Fünften<br />
Ferdinand Aus der Fünten, Walter’s big antagonist, is head of the department of the SS in charge of<br />
the deportation of the Dutch Jews. He is a rather lonely, not too intelligent man of humble origins<br />
who gladly puts up with Walter’s (faked) sympathy. Their pleasant drinking friendship abruptly comes<br />
to an end when the SS member finds out that Süskind abuses his trust for illegal activities.<br />
The Austrian actor Karl Markovics broke through with the lead role in THE COUNTERFEITERS, the<br />
film that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008. He played a variety of<br />
roles in the theatre and in dozens of Austrian and German television films and series and acted<br />
recently along with Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger at UNKNOWN IDENTY as well as in Joseph<br />
8<br />
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Vilsmaier’s NAGA PARBAT and Jo Baier’s HENRY IV.<br />
He won several awards for his roles in feature films and made his debut as film director in 2011. Karl<br />
Markovics’ debut BREATHING was received several awards in 2011, among others in Cannes with<br />
the Label Europe Cinema for ‘Best European Film’ during the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.<br />
NYNCKE BEEKHUYZEN is HANNA SÜSKIND<br />
Hanna is Walter’s wife, sensitive and smart. Not only is she mad about Walter, but she also supports<br />
him through thick and thin in his risky illegal activities.<br />
Nyncke Beekhuyzen (1980) studied at The Amsterdam School for Drama and Contemporary Music<br />
Theatre. She became famous for her roles in the television series “I.C.” and “Lotte,” in which she<br />
played the title role for two years. In addition to this Nyncke Beekhuyzen starred in television and<br />
film productions such as “Julia’s Tango,” “Verborgen Gebreken,” “Spoorloos Verdwenen” and the<br />
television film “Gebroken Rood.”<br />
Nyncke Beekhuyzen can often be seen in the theatre. She played in the music theatre production<br />
“Een Zomerzotheid,” “The GVR,” “Sexual Perversity” and “Gebroeders Leeuwenhart.” In the<br />
summer of 2011 she performed the show “Kunnen Jullie Mij Thuisbrengen” at the Theatre Festival<br />
Boulevard with her own theatre company En Consorten. From November 2011 on Nyncke<br />
Beekhuyzen will play one of the lead roles in the play “De Eetclub” based on the novel of the same<br />
name by Saskia Noort.<br />
KATJA HERBERS is Fanny Phillips<br />
Fanny is the assistant of Mrs. Pimentel in the day-care centre across the street from the Dutch<br />
Theatre. She is young and beautiful. She plays a key role in the final scene of the story, when the<br />
children smuggled from the Theatre barely escape death.<br />
Katja Herbers is an internationally successful actress. After finishing grammar school she graduated<br />
from The Amsterdam School for Drama and Contemporary Music Theatre in 2005. She also studied<br />
at the HB Studio in New York. During her studies she already appeared in several films, such as<br />
PETER BELL and the American film BRUSH WITH FATE.<br />
She worked together with famous directors such as Alex van Warmerdam, Ben Sombogaart,<br />
Antoinette Beumer, Marc de Cloe, Ursula Antoniak and Ivo van Hove.<br />
She is connected to the Munich Kammerspiele of Johan Simons. She is also connected to Theu<br />
Boermans, under whose direction she also performed the generally praised monologue “Fräulein<br />
Else”, which she is currently performing in German. Some films in which Katja appears are: LOFT,<br />
THE STORM, AMSTERDAM, SONNY BOY, BEAUTIFUL LIFE and the award-winning television film<br />
“De Uitverkorene,” for which she received an honorable mention at the Golden Calfs.<br />
CREW<br />
RUDOLF VAN DEN BERG – director<br />
Award winning writer/director Rudolf van den Berg has been making films and documentaries for<br />
over 30 years now. Last year, director Rudolf van den Berg’s film TIRZA – based on the best-selling<br />
novel by Arnon Grunberg – was the Dutch entry for the Academy Awards.<br />
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9
Van den Berg on the film SÜSKIND: "The Shoah (Holocaust) has always felt like a puzzle in my life<br />
that has to be solved somehow. This is not possible working from behind my desk. Only in the<br />
cinema, I think, can I get even a glimpse of the horror that took place just a few years before my<br />
birth. By making SÜSKIND, I hope to be able to share my total perplexity about this<br />
incomprehensible chapter in history with an audience. When the script was finished I began to see a<br />
movie that is not only about history, but also about us, about the time we are living in, about our<br />
existence in a world where stigma and genocide have almost become stereotypical dimensions of<br />
international politics."<br />
2010 Tirza<br />
Golden Calf Best Director, Nomination Golden Calf Best Film, Dutch Entry Academy Awards<br />
2002 Snapshots<br />
Romantic comedy with Burt Reynolds, Julie Christie and Carmen Chaplin.<br />
1997 For my Baby<br />
Ghost story/psychological drama<br />
Golden Calf Best Director, Nomination Best Film and Nomination Grolsch Award<br />
1996 The Cold Light of Day<br />
Thriller based on “Das Versprechen” by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. With Richard E. Grant.<br />
1992 De Johnsons<br />
Horrorfilm with Monique van de Ven, Kenneth Herdigein and Esmée de la Bretonnière.<br />
1989 Evenings<br />
Based on the novel by Gerard Reve, with Thom Hoffman & Rijk de Gooyer.<br />
Golden Calf Best Film & Best Male Actor, Nomination Golden Calf Best Director, several awards on foreign<br />
festivals<br />
1987 Looking for Eileen<br />
Based on the novel by Leon de Winter, with Lysette Anthony and Thom Hoffman.<br />
1984 Bastille<br />
Based on the novel by Leon de Winter, with Derek de Lint, Geert de Jong and Evelyne Dress.<br />
Golden Calf Best Director<br />
ABOUT THE PRODUCERS<br />
SAN FU MALTHA – Fu Works<br />
Fu Works Productions was found in 1995 by San Fu Maltha and has grown into one of the most<br />
leading feature film production companies of the Netherlands. Fu Works is an independent and<br />
internationally oriented production company that produces feature films, documentaries and tv<br />
series.<br />
Fu Works produced several feature films, such as the successful films TIRZA (Dutch entry for<br />
Academy Awards), WINTER IN WARTIME (shortlist best foreign film - Academy Awards), SPY OF<br />
10<br />
For further information:<br />
Beta Cinema GmbH, Press, Dorothee Stoewahse, Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 15, Mobile: + 49 170 63 84 627<br />
press@betafilm.com, www.betacinema.com.<br />
Pictures and filmclips available on ftp.betafilm.com, username: ftppress01, password: 8uV7xG3tB
ORANGE, LOVE IS ALL, BLACK BOOK (shortlist best foreign film - Academy Awards), COSTA!,<br />
PHILEINE SAYS SORRY, TOO FAT TOO FURIOUS and IN ORANGE. The company is not only<br />
interested in films with a wider audience appeal, but has also produced award winning documentaries<br />
like 4 ELEMENTS and MADE IN KOREA and special projects like CARMEN OF THE NORTH,<br />
KICKS and the Finnish-Chinese-Dutch cult movie JADE WARRIOR.<br />
Besides World War II drama SÜSKIND, coming-of-age drama MILO will have it’s premier in Spring<br />
2012. MILO is a co production with Irish producer Samson Films and directed by first-timers and<br />
Roel and Berend Boorsma. Furthermore road movie PORTABLE LIFE and horror/adventure 3d<br />
movie AMPHIBIOUS will be released. THE BOMBARDMENT and KENAU are in pre production and<br />
will be filmed in 2012.<br />
Fu Works has many productions in development: NADRA, WESTERLING, PIM, BIRDS WITHOUT<br />
WINGS, CLARENCE SEEDORF, A HAPPY LIFE, THE LITTLE CAPTAIN, ALMOST DEAD,<br />
THERESA IMMACULATA, THE HIDDEN FORCE, TOOS and NEWYEAR.<br />
Fu Works is not only active in the Dutch film industry. Since 2005, owner San Fu Maltha is involved<br />
in the Australian film and television company New Holland Pictures as a major shareholder. New<br />
Holland Pictures produced SEPARATION CITY and UNFINISHED SKY, a remake of the Dutch<br />
Golden Globe nominee THE POLISH BRIDE. In 2006 Maltha set up a joint venture with exhibitor<br />
group Blitz in Indonesia, called Jive. Jive is an Indonesian distribution company. Blitz is an exhibitor<br />
with multiplexes all over Java.<br />
JEROEN KOOLBERGEN – Cadenza Films<br />
The film production company Cadenza Films bv was set up at the end of 1999 and incorporated<br />
beginning of 2000 by Dutch director Rudolf van den Berg and international producer Pierre Spengler<br />
(Superman, The Three Musketeers, Cannes Palm d’Or-award winning Underground).<br />
The shares of the company are equally owned by Rudolf van den Berg, Jeroen Koolbergen and Pierre<br />
Spengler. Managing director and producer is Jeroen Koolbergen. Pierre Spengler acts as producer<br />
and supervisor. The aim of Cadenza Films is to produce feature movies in the English and the Dutch<br />
language, which combine quality with realistic commercial possibilities.<br />
Cadenza’s first English spoken feature film SNAPSHOTS – with Burt Reynolds and Julie Christie in<br />
the leads – premiered in the summer of 2002.<br />
TIRZA, based on the novel by bestselling Dutch author Arnon Grunberg, opened at the Dutch Film<br />
Festival in October 2010 to rave reviews and won a Golden Film award (100.000 visitors) within a<br />
few weeks. The film was also awarded Golden Calfs for best direction and best editing. TIRZA was<br />
the Dutch submission for the Academy Awards 2011. The film was produced in co-production with<br />
Fu Works Productions.<br />
At the moment Cadenza Films is developing a number of promising Dutch and international projects.<br />
SPINOZA will be a large scale biopic of the famous 17th century Dutch philosopher. ORESTES is<br />
Rudolf van den Berg´s adaptation of Aeschylus´ Oresteia and is an epic story about murder, family<br />
issues and the origin of justice and democracy.<br />
For further information:<br />
Beta Cinema GmbH, Press, Dorothee Stoewahse, Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 15, Mobile: + 49 170 63 84 627<br />
press@betafilm.com, www.betacinema.com.<br />
Pictures and filmclips available on ftp.betafilm.com, username: ftppress01, password: 8uV7xG3tB<br />
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REINIER SELEN<br />
Producer Reinier Selen was born in Venlo in 1972. He graduated as a documentary director from<br />
Kunstacademie St. Joost (St. Joost’s Art Academy) in Breda in 1996, and founded Rinkel Film<br />
Productions BV in 1997.<br />
In the following years Selen produced nine movies for TV, the crime series Access Denied and the<br />
award winning feature films OFF SCREEN and BLOOD BROTHERS. He initiated and produced<br />
GODFORSAKEN which won the Golden Film award within four weeks. The film was sold to 12<br />
other countries and won many awards including three Golden Calves.<br />
In 2005, Selen took part in the creative writing programme at the Binger FilmLab and in 2006 he<br />
took part in the European EAVE Programme. Selen was one of the Golden Calf Jury members at the<br />
2007 Dutch Film Festival and represented the Netherlands as ‘Producer On The Move’ at the 2008<br />
Cannes International Film Festival. The latter resulted in Selen receiving an invitation for participating<br />
in the Producers Lab Toronto 2010.<br />
Selen also produced the successful NOTHING PERSONAL which has won many awards including six<br />
awards at the 2009 Locarno Film Festival, four Golden Calves at the 2009 Dutch Film Festival and it<br />
also received two nominations during the 2010 European Film Awards.<br />
Selen is a member of the Dutch Producers Association (NVS) and of the European Film Academy.<br />
BETA CINEMA – World Sales<br />
Beta Cinema has established itself as a "boutique-operation" for independent feature films with<br />
strong theatrical potential. Beta Cinema's philosophy is to keep its selective acquisition policy of 10<br />
to 12 titles per year in order to fully develop the theatrical potential of each title according to its<br />
individual character.<br />
Beta Cinema’s portfolio includes outstanding productions like Academy Award 2011-nominated IN<br />
DARKNESS, multiple African Academy Award 2011-winning VIVA RIVA, multiple Spanish Goya<br />
Awards 2011-winning BLACK BREAD, German Film Award-winning VINCENT WANTS TO SEA<br />
(2011), ALMANYA (2011), JOHN RABE (2009) and FOUR MINUTES (2007), Cannes 2008 Jury<br />
Prize-winning and Academy Award-nominated IL DIVO, Academy Award 2007-winning THE<br />
COUNTERFEITERS, Academy Award 2007 nominated MONGOL, Academy Award 2006-winning<br />
THE LIVES OF OTHERS and the Academy Award 2004-nominated DOWNFALL.<br />
For further information:<br />
Beta Cinema GmbH, Press, Dorothee Stoewahse, Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 15, Mobile: + 49 170 63 84 627<br />
press@betafilm.com, www.betacinema.com.<br />
Pictures and filmclips available on ftp.betafilm.com, username: ftppress01, password: 8uV7xG3tB<br />
12