Gerard Thoolen

Documentary about the Dutch theatregroup the Werktheater. The aim of the company was to create socially relevant theater by means of cooperative processes and improvisation. They often played their performances on location, such as in hospitals, prisons, healthcare institutions and schools. In this documentary, those involved are interviewed about this remarkable theater group.

A troubled detective befriends a single woman and her daughter with the intention of using them as bait for a serial killer.

Late 16th century, persecuted protestantism and general dissatisfaction with the Catholic Habsburg rule in the Netherlands lead to large-scale plundering and vandalizing of churches, only harshening the Spanish Inquisition, sparkling the Eighty Years War.

A man from the province looks back on his graduation year, some teachers, the parental home and especially his father.

A chimney sweep’s daredevil antics are meant to keep a young woman from jumping off the roof. But does she really want to jump? Or does he maybe? A street sweeper is watching and passes the hat round for our hero. Or is he part of the act too?

Composer Misha Mengelberg collaborates with director Anthony Garner on a commissioned short film to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the death of Mozart.

An exiled magician finds an opportunity for revenge against his enemies muted when his daughter and the son of his chief enemy fall in love in this uniquely structured retelling of the 'The Tempest'.

A lonely man tossed by life and hectored by his landlady finds happiness only with an alley cat.

África do Sul, 1976. Ben du Toit (Donald Sutherland) é um professor que, gradativamente, toma consciência da terrível realidade do seu país, na qual os negros são assassinados sem o menor motivo e os assassinos são protegidos pelo regime dominante. Diante deste quadro, ele resolve enfrentar o sistema.

Alternating comedy and drama this portrait of different families on three floors in an Amsterdam building where the stairs symbolizes the suffering of known urban living alongside each other. Upstairs live two students, including the failed and unemployed singer Karin with Harrie and Wouter down with his demented mother.

Four-part musical about the life of Dutch actress Fien de la Mar, chronicling her earliest days on stage with her father, her glory days as a stage and movie star and the building her own theatre, up until the tragic end of her life.

This film is about the Jewish girl Sara and the ruin of her family during World War II. Her parents have to live in the Jewish ghetto in Amsterdam, but later they are arrested and deported. Sara decides to flee with her brother and his girlfriend to Palestine. Based on the book by Marga Minco.

Otto, a Jewish refugee who managed to escape from Berlin in the early days of WW2, is now the owner of an Amsterdam ice cream parlor. Otto's place soon becomes a microcosm of the city with its German invaders, Dutch collaborators and anti-fascist resistance groups.

The reconstruction of a Dutch political scandal from the 1960s when a PR specialist managed to gain unhealthy influence in government circles. Eventually he became the biggest victim.

Um prédio instala um novo sistema de elevadores, mas logo começam a aparecer os problemas. Em um momento, um grupo de jovens fica preso e quase morre sufocado. Depois, um visitante é decapitado pelas portas. A empresa aciona Felix, o responsável pela instalação do elevador, mas ele não encontra nada de errado. No entanto, com o passar do tempo Felix começa a suspeitar que os sucessivos acidentes podem ser fruto de uma experiência perversa com o elevador.

Esse drama narra a vida de dois irmãos que vivem em uma região pacata da Holanda. Um deles sonha com as luzes da ribalta e com a possibilidade de ser um 'show-man'. O outro, deficiente mental, se satisfaz com sua rotina tranqüila, cômoda, onde possa ser apenas o que é. Numa analogia à história de Caim e Abel, o roteiro mostra a inevitabilidade dos conflitos entre os dois para que possam realizar seus respectivos desejos. Sem diálogos, o roteiro exprime com brilhantismo o mundo desses dois irmãos, marcado pelos sussurros, grunhidos e lamentações.

Hes, an uptight and disaffected social worker reaching retirement, discovers a young woman, Anna, in the closet of an acquaintance who has committed suicide. Realizing that she has been kept in the apartment all her life, he moves in and helps her comes to terms with the complexities of the real world.

A husband, half of an entertainment duo, the Nellicos, tells his wife, who is the other half of the duo, that he has another woman. But they cannot discuss this as he tells her only just before they are due to perform in front of a large audience. (BFI)

In 1928 in the northern part of the Netherlands, a man has an affair with the wife of one of his friends (who is in jail at the time). Because she abandons her children to move in with him, the police are sent to arrest her. This leads to a dramatic confrontation.

TV-adaptation of the performance by the Dutch theatre group 'Het Werkteater'. Three ladies of high society invite homeless people, homeless people and junks to spend a pleasant evening with them, in order to promote communication and integration.

An unsuspecting flower farmer visits the hospital to discuss some test results, only to find himself admitted without explanation for an indefinite period of further examination and observation.

"Conditions" - The improvisation-based performance was inspired by psychiatrists such as RD Laing (Family and Madness) and J. Foudraine (Who is of wood). The Werkteater played this performance 'in the den of the lion': in psychiatric institutions for patients and carers. This led to very intensive and adventurous performances in which 'a lot' always happened. Afterwards the discussions sometimes ran high, but even during the performance the audience sometimes mixed themselves in the scenes.

TV-adaptation of the performance by the Dutch theatre group 'het Werkteater'. A realistic fairy tale about old people in the no man's land between life and death, set in a retirement home.

Documentairy about the progressive theatre group 'Het Werkteater' at their home base on Kattengat 10 in Amsterdam.

After her mother -- a prostitute -- is murdered by her father, Sien is raised by her grandparents. Instead of a bourgeois life with grocer's son Gerrit van Buren, she chooses for an adventurous life with toutman Jan Meier. She follows him and becomes a revue artist in an Amsterdam cabaret, until her father comes to see her...

A gang of six wealthy, well-dressed and well-spoken hoodlums break into a married couple's house and rape the wife while forcing the husband to watch. Thus begins a dogged investigation by a determined detective who quickly finds that their cult-like solidarity can be a serious obstacle to breaking them.