De Propagandist

Alternative facts and false propaganda – they are of all times. In WW II, the Nazis made filmmaker Jan Teunissen the most powerful man in the Dutch film industry.

As head of the Film Department of the SS and the Dutch Nazi party the NSB and as leader of the Dutch Film Guild, Jan Teunissen (1898-1975) became the most powerful man in the Dutch film industry during World War II. Before the war, Teunissen, known as the ‘Dutch Leni Riefenstahl’, was a well-known filmmaker. What drove him to the Nazi regime? This documentary incorporates archive footage and previously unpublished audio interviews to investigate the roots and operations of propaganda. A film about unbridled ambition looking for a vent and the manipulative power of film – timeless themes that resonate in the present. Best Dutch film at IDFA 2024.