Over Haanstra

Producer and director Rolf Orthel started his career as an assistant-director on Haanstra's films De stem van het water (1966) and Bij de beesten af (1972). As part of the Haanstra retrospective, he was asked to make a documentary about Bert Haanstra. This presented him with a tough choice: 'What should I show, what should I leave out? Should I emphasise his skills or the themes that inspired him? And which role did the fact play he grew up in Goor, Twente?' Orthel decided to make a portrait that puts Haanstra in his time, the time he depicted in his films. A representation of our country that Orthel thinks not everybody liked: too congenial, too ordinary, too one-sided. But they were films for which the general public went to the theatre time and again. Only in his later work, he sometimes lost contact with 'his' audience. What remains are beautiful excerpts from his work and especially the characteristic attitude to life that Haanstra had. Bert Haanstra, friend, 'teacher' and a true colleague for many filmmakers.