Best Dutch Documentaries
Best Dutch Documentaries - sorted by year (posters only)
A selection of the most interesting and expertly crafted documentaries from The Netherlands. Most films on the list won international awards.
A selection of the most interesting and expertly crafted documentaries from The Netherlands. Most films on the list won international awards.
List activity
3.6K views
• 5 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
73 titles
- DirectorFloris-Jan van LuynEthiopian Daniel Hoek has no doubt in his mind that if his Dutch father had not abandoned him he would never have turned to crime. His Dutch father, Joop Hoek, has no doubt in his mind that if his Dutch-Indonesian father had not abandoned him he would have grown up to be a different person. In The Bastard two separate stories of an adult child and an elderly father are inextricably intertwined. Together they tell a harrowing tale about fate and DNA and about how the lack of a father influenced these lives.
- DirectorTon van ZantvoortA traditional shepherd is forced to innovate in a neo-liberal world that conflicts with his idealistic views. Will his struggle pay off or is he forced to go with the flock?
- DirectorHester OvermarsCan everything always be forgiven?
- DirectorBarbara VisserWho is still afraid of red, yellow and blue? It is one of the most important abstract paintings of the twentieth century and has evoked more than just this provoking question. Fifty years after the event around the painting "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III" by Barnett Newman the question is asked: what is art?
- DirectorWillem BaptistStarsStefanie SchneiderStephen HerchenChris BonanosINSTANT DREAMS tells the story of a group of scientist who are trying to unravel the chemical formula of Polaroid and the Polaroid-users that eagerly await its rebirth. Each in their own way tries to keeps their instant dream alive.
- DirectorAliona van der HorstDutch filmmaker Aliona van der Horst is given an inheritance of 6 square meters of a small, wooden house in a village outside Moscow. She embarks on a journey back into the secrets of her mother's Russian past.
- DirectorMaasja OomsA disturbing, observing film portraying the daily life and deepest emotions of a young, homeless girl who is in danger of derailing.
- DirectorAlex de RondeStarsTobias de RondeJoachim de RondeChristina BihlTo forever be an outsider in your own country or roam freely in an international but tiny kingdom? That is the choice Tobias, who was born deaf, seems to be faced with.
- DirectorMarjoleine BoonstraPainter Mark Rothko is best known for imposing canvasses that eschew representation in favor of pure color and texture-using them to express fundamental human emotions. In THE SILENCE OF MARK ROTHKO, we visit Rothko's studio at 22 Bowery in New York, and go to Florence's Museo Di San Marco, where the monastic work of Renaissance painter Fra Angelico deeply influenced Rothko's mission to create environments and not just paintings. In The Hague, filmmaker Marjoleine Boonstra introduces us to curator Franz Kaiser of the Gemeentemuseum, as his team installs the works for the first major Rothko exhibit to be held in Holland in 40 years.THE SILENCE OF MARK ROTHKO lingers on paintings and locations - using architectural shots, interiors and streets capes, to link Rothko's paintings to the world he
- DirectorArno HagersErik LieshoutReinier van BrummelenStarsAnne Claire BourdinJérôme TessierRobert CombasBased on Michel Houellebecq's 1991 essay "To Stay Alive", about struggling artists, the role of the poet, and mental health problems. Featuring marginal artists as well as Houellebecq and Iggy Pop.
- DirectorGuido HendrikxStarsValentijn DhaenensIn a classroom newly arrived refugees learn a lesson about multifarious Europe. Operating at the intersection of fiction and documentary, Stranger in Paradise reflects on the power relations between Europeans and refugees in a candid fashion.
- DirectorCoco SchrijberIn How to Meet a Mermaid, the sea becomes a haven for mankind, locked in its struggle with its 'indifferent universe'. Lex, Rebecca, and Miguel each have their own reasons to lay their lives in the hands of the capricious waters. The question remains, however, whether they will find what they so anxiously seek underneath the surface of the waters.
- DirectorReber DoskyStarsDilovan KîkoThe extraordinary story of a young reporter in war-torn Kobanî.
- DirectorPeter LatasterPetra Lataster-CzischStarsKiet EngelHaya KhleifBranche JovanovskiImmigrant children have to find their way in a new classroom, with a new teacher and a language they don't understand. An ode to the teacher every child deserves.
- DirectorCatherine van CampenStarsGert KooijmanTon KooijmanIn this funny, abrasive and moving portrait of the Kooijman car dealership, we watch as the company struggles to survive during the recession. Anyone accustomed to working in an office environment is certain to find many scenes familiar - and funny in a cringeworthy way. The viewer is invited to sit in on a performance review meeting between the boss and one of his employees. The auto mechanic gets to hear that "There's never much of a friendly expression on your face - unless you're in a bar, that is." A lack of friendliness is most certainly not a good thing, and "customer experience" is what it's all about. When it comes to marketing strategy, the Nespresso machine is Kooijman's great example. Elsewhere, the camera follows the daily lives of several employees. And so we learn about life outside the world of targets, customer experience and customer satisfaction in scenes filmed with a photographic eye, dialogues that seem to have been written for the stage, and just the occasional voice-over. It raises the issue of how "work" is viewed in this sector - or perhaps all sectors - in the Netherlands. The filmmaker also questions the high price we are prepared to pay for status and recognition. Images of damaged cars brought into Kooijman's garage contrast sharply with glamorous shots of car shows, leather gearshift knobs and glistening race cars.
- DirectorEster GouldReijer ZwaanStarsMadonnaLuis CamachoJose GuitierezWhat does it take to express yourself? The surprising and moving story of Madonna's most famous troupe of dancers.
- DirectorTom FassaertOn his 30th birthday, Tom Fassaert receives a mysterious invitation from his 95-year-old grandmother Marianne to come visit her in South Africa. At that time, the only thing he knows about her are the myths and predominantly negative stories his father told him. She was a femme fatale who went through countless men, a famous model in the 1950s, and a mother that put her two sons into a children's home. Fassaert decides to accept her invitation. But when his grandmother makes an unexpected confession, his venture becomes much more complicated than he could ever have imagined.
- DirectorEster GouldEver since she was a young child, filmmaker Ester Gould has been amazed by the sheer self-confidence of her older sister Rowan, whose boundless creativity and natural beauty tended to make everyone around her jealous. She has the world at her feet, and the universe is her playground. But can such a well-developed sense of your own worth go too far? Self-assurance is greatly valued - until it spills over into an unhealthy overestimation of the self. In this incisive, personal visual essay, Gould explores our society's increasing obsession with the self. Thanks in part to social media, the pressure to have a fantastically successful life is ever greater; personal development seems to be the only thing that counts. The filmmaker follows a number of seemingly successful people going out, socializing and participating in the art world, as they reflect in conversations or interviews on the level of self-confidence they display and how this relates to their actual "self." Meanwhile, dreamy reenactments tell the story of the filmmaker's sister Rowan, illustrated by excerpts from correspondence between the sisters. How marvelously everything is going; how fantastically she's doing; she's taking yet another inspirational course; she gets so many invites that there's simply no time. Gould gradually starts to question her interesting sister's stories, which leads to a disconcerting denouement. - See more at: https://www.idfa.nl/industry/tags/project.aspx?id=0EB122D3-2D7D-474F-9AFE-25948DD336E8#sthash.wgBgnTGl.dpuf
- DirectorDaan VeldhuizenWhen backpackers visit a small village in remote northern Laos in search of a traditional experience, the inhabitants of the village discover the attractions of the West. Two worlds meet at the crossroads of their respective desire; the one longing for authenticity, the other for modernity. In this micro-cosmos, their encounter leaves no one unchanged and tells a poetic story of friendship and how we relate to each other in a rapidly changing world.
- DirectorMorgan KnibbeIn search of love, the ghost of a drowned refugee frantically roams the fringes of Europe, the alleged paradise, while witnessing the brutal everyday reality of immigrants stuck in limbo.
- DirectorHester OvermarsIn 1983 East-Germany the Anhalt family secretly builds a single-engine aircraft to escape life under a communist regime. They are betrayed and arrested by the Stasi. 30 Years later the events are still a determining factor in their lives.
- DirectorNelleke KoopPolice and forensic doctors are able to examine a body because of a professional gaze. Their hands touch the body, feel the skin for traces, sew the skin, and comb the hair. Passed from hand to hand, the meaning of the bodily remains changes: a found object becomes a human being again.
- DirectorGeertjan LasscheStarsWilco van Rooijen
- DirectorMorgan Knibbe360 Eritrean refugees drown off the coast of Lampedusa. Chaos breaks loose at the harbor, whilst hundreds of coffins are being loaded onto a military ship.
- DirectorJos de PutterStarsCheetaNicole HendersonGlen SchultzDocumentary about three retired apes: a film star, a scientist and a cripple. They look back at their lives and the intriguing relationship between humans and apes. Who watches whom, and who learns from this?