Erasmus Huis holds 10-day film festival

Erasmus Huis holds 10-day film festival

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Dutch cultural center Erasmus Huis is holding a 10-day film
festival that will screen dozens of films with a variety of
themes ranging from sociocultural problems that bedevil the tiny
nation to its relationships with former colonized countries,
Indonesia in particular.

The film festival, part of a program titled Dutch Week, which
also covers seminars, concerts and an art exhibition, started on
Sept. 15 and continues through Sept. 25, featuring films from
controversial director Theo Van Gogh and a film based on the
classic book, Max Havelaar, by director Fons Rademakers.

To symbolize the soul-searching drive on relationships between
Dutch people and the Muslim community that followed the death of
Van Gogh, the film festival was opened with the screening of
Shouf Shouf Habibi, a film by director Albert ter Heerdt.

The work is a lighthearted comedy about the life of a Morocco-
born Dutch kid who is looking for an identity in the fast-
changing and complex world.

Abdullah, a lead character in the movie, dreams of becoming an
Arab actor starring in Hollywood movies in the post-9/11 era.

Another film that will likely generate much interest in the
festival is 06/05, a politically-charged feature film directed by
Theo Van Gogh.

Van Gogh's 06/05 is a fictional version of the events that led
to the assassination of flamboyant, far-right Dutch politician
Pim Fortuijn.

The film's screenplay was based on the book The Sixth of May
by Thomas Ross.

The film title refers to the date Fortuijn was assassinated by
Volkert van der Graaf, a white-collar enviromentalist.

Fourtuijn may be the only politician in the Netherlands that
evaded Van Gogh's stinging criticism due to the former's stance
against the unchecked inflow of Muslim immigrants to the
Netherlands.

With the benefit of hindsight, the movie could be seen as a
self-fulfilling prophecy, as a similar fate later befell Van
Gogh, who died at the hands of a 26-year-old Dutchman of Moroccan
origin, Mohammed Bouyeri.

Prior to his tragic death, Van Gogh made a score of films that
were considered offensive to the Dutch Muslim community.

His last film, Submission, -- his collaboration with Somalian-
born female politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- delves into oppression
against women in the Muslim community. In the short film, Van
Gogh paints on the body of a naked woman writings from the Koran.

On the third day of the festival, Max Havelaar, a film about
the struggle of a Dutch officer to help indigenous people who had
fallen prey to injustices from their traditional rulers, will be
screened.

Set in South Banten in the middle of the 19th century, Max
Havelaar was based on the book Multatuli by Eduard Douwes Deker,
a government official in the Dutch East Indies.

The book has been considered one of the best ever written in
Dutch literature.

Together with other cinematic works such as Blue Bird, In
Oranje and Hollands Licht, the films will shed new light on the
modern-day Netherlands and its struggling film industry.

In the face on a massive onslaught from Hollywood movies, the
Dutch film industry, as in other European countries, has managed
to produce just over 30 films per year, paltry by Hollywood
standards.

However, only half of these ever make it to the cinema, with
the remainder being shown on the small screen.

Only 10 percent of Dutch films screened at the cinema get
certified as box-office.

Despite the commercial woes, Dutch films have become the
favorites of critics, even in Hollywood. Scores of Dutch films
have won Oscars as best foreign movies and some of its brightest
talent such as Jan De Bont, Famkee Jansen and Anton Corbijn, have
worked at Tinseltown.

Dutch films have also gained cult status in U.S. east-coast
cities.

For screening schedule contact: Erasmus Huis Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said

Kav. S-3, Kuningan, South Jakarta, tel. 5241069 or e-mail:

info@erasmushuis.or.id, website www.erasmushuis.or.id