Bert Haanstra paints a portrait of The Netherlands and the Dutch, in his own unparalleled manner. Partly with the aid of a hidden camera he observes people in the most diverse situations. He shows the unusual in the usual and the usual in the unusual. The harsh years of the post war era of reconstruction have passed and for most people life is better than before.
Direction
Haanstra finds symphonies in supermarket queues and bike traffic.
Cinematography
Hidden camera poetry: every frame argues life itself is cinema.
Editing
Rhythmic cuts turn mundane rituals into visual music.
Director
Bert Haanstra
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Haanstra smuggled cameras into department stores and train stations, pioneering 'observational cinema' decades before it had a name.
Released when the Netherlands was rebranding itself from war-ravaged nation to modern European success story—this film IS that propaganda, but make it art.
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