Stella Van Voorst van Beest
Editor
Stories about young Ukrainian dancers and their hasty flight to the Netherlands. You see their new life as refugees. The former conservatory in The Hague is a shelter for them where they collect their lives and find refuge in their profession: dance. The formation of a new ballet company, The United Ukrainian Ballet, is an important foothold in winning back their lives. They find comfort in each other and close friendships develop. In addition, there is the great love for ballet, for the dancers the best way to express themselves.
Director
Documentary about loneliness in the elderly.
Director
Nobody can escape the dance of life. Prisoners of the Ground is literally and symbolically about surviving in the dark: a portrait of an introvert, melancholic society; a Finnish tango in the shape of a movie.
Editor
Filmmaker Jan Willem van Dam made a film in Georgia, following the Revolution of the Roses in 2003, on the borderline of fiction and documentary. The film is based on 'the life and dreams' of Nini Sardlishvili, a sixteen-year-old Georgian girl. Nini tells about her life and dreams, speaks with two elderly women about past and future and walks among the ruins of a huge, burnt-out Soviet archive. She plays herself in the film, just like the other protagonist, Domestic Intelligence agent Gocha Ovashvili. He travels across the country in response to a remarkable appeal by a Georgian minister (appearing in a newscast), to ask people if they are criminals. During this futile and absurd quest, he meets mainly aged Georgians, including a shepherd and two monks, and admires the scenery.