Stella Van Voorst van Beest

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.

How does the Netherlands actually sound? Do we still take the time to listen carefully to the sounds around us? Or is there so much noise that we prefer to shut ourselves off?

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.

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.

Whirling through the solar system is a physics-defying planet named Insomnia where time stands still. When an elderly artist is diagnosed with incurable cancer, his doctor suggests a visit to this celestial body as a way of stemming the progression of the disease. With the help of his filmmaker daughter, the artist prepares for a momentous interplanetary journey.

Documentary about loneliness in the elderly.

Horses mirror our non-verbal behaviour, which makes them perfectly suited as 'mirrors' in therapeutic sessions. In this short documentary, director Eva Sjerps shows from up close, focusing on the senses, what these sessions with youngsters look like. How do horses react to the children? And what does the horses’ reaction do to the adolescents? During these interactions, the horses mirror the behaviour of young people who contend with various problems. In the process, they are able to recognise their underlying feelings and behavioural patterns and can subsequently change them.

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