Ruben van der Hammen

Movies

The Breath of Life
Editor
After a near-fatal accident, filmmaker Guido van der Werve muses about the highs and lows of his own life as he endures a long process of recovery. Instead of a linear narrative, Nummer achttien is structured as a series of movements: it departs from the classical documentary to present us with a series of vignettes that combine past and present, existentialist despair and deadpan humour, reflection and creativity, the joys and pains of remembering and forgetting.
Do Not Hesitate
Editor
A truck carrying a Dutch military convoy on a peacekeeping mission breaks down somewhere in the desert. As a group of soldiers waits for a repair team to arrive, they encounter a local boy who refuses to leave.
Skies Above Hebron
Editor
No Hay Camino
Editor
“There Is No Path” follows legendary director Heddy Honigmann on a real and spiritual journey. Today, facing a terminal illness, she will travel to her country of birth, Peru and through Europe revisiting all the important places and moments of her life, richly illustrated with clips of her films. Is it a farewell journey in which she lets go of her family, her loved ones and her work? Or is it a celebration of life? Her travelling companion is taxi driver Hussein, a refugee from Iraq with whom Heddy has a tight bond. As they trace Heddy’s family history they find many common themes. They are no longer taxi driver and customer, but two souls who each find joy in life in the face of adversity. It is a life affirming film about universal connection and comfort.
They Call Me Babu
Editor
In the 1940s, Alima decides to flee from an arranged marriage to work as a nanny for a Dutch family. Through all her new impressions and thoughts, she looks critically at colonial society and her own position.
Love Letters
Editor
They still exist: young people who know how to write a love letter. Five people in their twenties read aloud the most intimate letter they've ever written.
Shouted from the Rooftops
Editor
A romantic story set in the heart of a war-torn Kurdish town. When Sherin leaves to fight, her anguished lover Ferhat stays behind awaiting her return.
Waterboys
Editor
WATERBOYS tells the funny and moving story of crime novelist Victor and his cello-playing son Zack. When they get thrown out by their women on the same day, the two men have to sort out themselves and their relationship during a turbulent trip to Scotland where Victor's latest book has to be promoted. A film about a father who needs to grow up and his son who should take life less seriously.
The Intruder
Editor
In this smart and incisive thriller, a Dutch cop of Moroccan heritage goes undercover in a Moroccan drug ring and finds there a feeling of belonging he never experienced in "normal" society.
The Dinner Club
Assistant Editor
Karen (32) and Michel (36) move with their daughter to an exclusive residential area. She soon finds a new close circle of friends: the women of the Dinner Club, and their husbands. But when two of the Club members commit suicide under suspicious circumstances, Karen starts to have second thoughts about her new friends. She has to choose: will she reveal the truth and dish the dirt, or will she protect the interests of the Dinner Club?
Lazy Duck
Editor
What would happen with you if only you know the truth, and people won’t believe you? If the government decides to prosecute you and you have to plea for your own innocence without having the evidence? Peter Putker’s wife Durdana lost her life while sailing along the coast of Colombia. And although Peter states from the very beginning that they were attacked by pirates, the local authorities do not buy in his innocence. For them, he is the one who murdered his own wife. Problem is: only Peter himself was there and truly knows what happens. The Colombian authorities assign the case to the Dutch court. What happens when only you know the truth and any evidence supporting your innocence is lacking?