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China is playing an increasingly important role worldwide. Under President Xi Jinping, substantial investments are being made in communication and cooperation and industrious Chinese people are settling abroad in large numbers. Documentary maker and China expert Ruben Terlou visits them in the new VPRO travel series ‘The World of the Chinese’. Who are they, what do they want to achieve and what impact does their presence have on the local population?
When successful banker Thomas attends his father’s funeral, he meets his left-wing activist brother Arne again after many years. He makes an effort to get close to Arne and invites him to a prestigious conference on sustainable banking, but Arne uses the conference to make a political statement that has fatal consequences. Thomas finds himself fighting for his own career and for Arne’s life, but especially to regain his brother’s respect.
It is one of the most bizarre art thefts ever: four Romanian men steal seven world-famous masterpieces from the Rotterdam Kunsthal in 2012. The paintings are worth millions, but turn out to be worthless in the hands of the inexperienced art thieves. The hybrid film by director Jorien van Nes reconstructs the events in all their exciting details based on police interrogations. What is the value of art?
When midwife Sylvia von Kospoth discovers that many out-of-home placements of children are the result of poorly substantiated reports, she is torn between her conscience and her responsibility to report when a new baby is on the way.
Den Helder, just another town somewhere in the North of Holland. But today is not a day like all the others for Maarten and Emiel, the two sons of an ordinary family. Maarten has joined the Marines and is about to leave for Lebanon for a six-month mission. On the other hand, this is the very day when his brother Emiel is released from prison.
Two Dutch lawyers, Michiel Pestman and Victor Koppe, travel to Cambodia in 2011 to defend Nuon Chea in an international tribunal. Nuon Chea, also known as Brother No. 2, was the second man after Pol Pot in the Khmer Rouge regime. He is being charged with mass murder and crimes against humanity. For four years, the documentary follows the lawyers in their attempt to give this man a fair trial, but the UN tribunal is beset by local interests and a government which consists partly of other former members of the Khmer Rouge who would really like all of the blame to rest solely on the defendant. What should've been the crowning achievement in the careers of the lawyers turns out very different.
After the death of his French wife, Ward tries to pick up the pieces back home in Holland. He hires Romanian worker Doru to reconstruct his house, but when Doru suddenly disappears, Ward is left with Doru's nine year old son Mihai. When Ward travels to Romania in search for Mihai's mother, he has to reconcile himself with his past and his future.
Second Life, World of Warcraft, Metaplace, U World - all virtual worlds where the user can create their own paradise, far removed from real life. People can create societies that range from the democratic to the dictatorial, have avatars that resemble their ideal and can engage in actions that their real life personality would never dream of doing, from cyber-sex to virtual crime. But who creates these worlds and are they the right people to be crafting idealised societies that pretend to address and solve the inadequacies of the real world?
