CNBPA meets TIFF - 2 Dutch Movie Directors

Every year in September one of the biggest film festivals takes place: the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The festival screens film premieres from all over the world, including of course The Netherlands. The CNBPA invited two Dutch filmmakers to talk about their work and show bits and pieces of their film premieres at TIFF. Two very different films, documentary and drama, show the insights of immigration in The Netherlands.

Register now! Tickets include drinks and snacks, provided by our generous sponsor Investigation Counsel PC

Program:

6:00 pm:  Start

6:30 pm: First speaker, Director Alex Pitstra

Alex Pitstra was nominated for the Golden Calf of Best Script and is known for Die Welt (2013). He is at TIFF in Toronto for the North-American premiere of his movie Bezness as Usual.

Alex will tell us more about his journey while making this documentary, meeting his father, and the cultural differences between him and his Tunisian family. 

7:00 pm: Second speaker, Director Mijke de Jong

Mijke de Jong was awarded with the Golden Calf for Best Director and Crystal Bear for Best Film, and nominated for the Golden Calf for Best Television Drama. De Jong is known for Van God Los, Tussenstand (2007), Het zusje van Katia (2008), and Bluebird (2004). Mijke is at TIFF in Toronto for the World premiere of the movie Layla M.

Mijke de Jong will talk about her experience directing this drama that involves sensitive subjects like the Islam and terrorism. The official Dutch premiere will be November 17, 2016. Layla M. is part of the TIFF Platform-program where twelve selected movies compete for the prize of $25,000.

More on Bezness as usual
During the rise of mass tourism in the 1970s, young Tunisian men from poor families made it their business — or “bezness” — to romance women visiting from Europe. Among the children born from these relationships was filmmaker Alex Pitstra, who was raised by his mother in Holland and scarcely knew his father in Tunisia. In Bezness as Usual, Pitstra attempts to reconnect with his father and navigate the differences in their cultural attitudes and economic opportunities.

More on Layla M.
Radicalized by her adopted country’s anti-Muslim measures, a Dutch-Moroccan teenager (Nora El Koussour) marries a devout jihadist and leaves Amsterdam to join an Islamist cell in the Middle East. Layla encounters a world that nurtures her ideas initially, but finally confronts her with an impossible choice. She discovers that her new community has its own restrictions and prejudices.