It is very special and directly appealing, how artist Steve McQueen creates two interlocking portraits of Amsterdam: one shows the Nazi occupation that still haunts his adopted city; the other is a vivid journey through the last years of pandemic and protest.
‘Living in Amsterdam for me is like living with ghosts. It feels like two parallel stories are always unfolding at the same time. The past is always present’, says artist Steve McQueen. In the epic documentary De bezette stad, an adaptation of Bianca Stigter’s Atlas van een bezette stad, McQueen shows how life under Nazi occupation resonates in today’s Amsterdam. He does so in a deceptively simple way: by superimposing stories from those years on footage from the present. The effect is both devastating and hope-inspiring.
Credits
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Montage
Sound Design
Set geluid
Sound editing
Gouden Kalf winner
Beste Montage (2024)
Xander Nijsten
Beste Lange Documentaire (2024)
Steve McQueen
Beste Camera (2024)
Lennert Hillege, NSC
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