Jannes

Portrait of the draughts world champion Jannes van de Wal, who died in 1996 at the age of 39 of leukeamia. As a child, his talent at draughts was not taken seriously, so he wanted to prove himself. He decided to become a professional draughts player and made his dream come true when, at the age 24, he became world champion in Sao Paolo. It's not a profession you can live of, but Jannes made ends meet by turning up in any TV or radio show that paid as a shy and clownesque figure. Using TV archive footage, old photos and interviews with draughts friends and Jannes' brother, the film sketches the picture of a strange draughts' genius who had difficulty coming to terms with life. In 1997, Rein Hazewinkel won the Scenario Workshop for the script of this film at the International Documentary Filmfestival in Amsterdam.