Leonard Retel Helmrich

A hooker is stranded at a bustop, and a man crashes his car next to a phonebooth there. The hooker is attacked by punks, but fends them off; the man is attacked by the phone, and doesn't fare as well.

Every year millions of people look forward to the first preparation of Hollandse Nieuwe, the popular snack of raw herring from the North Sea’s spring catch. But how do you find glory in the grueling pursuit of a once-iconic fish that even the queen no longer accepts as definitively Dutch? Raw Herring celebrates the cultural legacy maintained by Holland’s last great herring fishers even as new trends and foreign competition threaten their way of life.

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Using performance to inspire critical reflection, Promised Paradise delivers fascinating and revealing insight into the social and religious undercurrents dominating Indonesian society today and the Muslim world at large.

What is youth all about? Before they could figure out what was happening, Xiao-Bu finds herself in a cat fight with Angel over a cigarette, Ah-Mi sleeps with Xiao-Bu’s boxer boyfriend, and Angel kisses Xiao-Bu. What could be worse? Imagine living with an alcoholic father who chose nothing in life but to stare out of a window. Picture the embarrassment if bird droppings stained your clothes just as you were asking someone out on a date. All three girls fall in love, feel hurt, forget and have experiences that are as random as 17 year-old Xiao-Bu’s coin toss which decides her future relationship with Angel.

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“Moving objects” are the subject of this film, a portrait of six Dutch theater groups that make performances with puppets and other objects. Manipulation and creating illusions is their profession. For them, the visual aspect of theater making is of great importance. These theater makers all have a special relationship with fine arts, they often use theater as a complement to express themselves. This form of theater has a great variety: from traditional to contemporary visual art events and everything in between. However, the starting point is always the same: bringing objects to life. By following theater makers with the camera - before, during and after the performance - we get to see things that otherwise we would never get to see: improvisations, dilemmas, the carpentry and construction. The film confronts the audience with the ingenuity of the performers and explores the genre through observation and dialogue.

The film tells a story of a Tarling Dangdut songwriter who loves being promiscuous but trying to serve an order to write religious Tarling dangdut song.

A documentary by renowned filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich about life in Majdal Anjar, a Syrian camp in Lebanon. The film takes us inside and shows what daily life is like for those whose lives are postponed and waiting to return to Raqqa.

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Through the eyes of grandmother Rumidjah, a poor old Christian woman living in the slums of Jakarta, we see the economical changing society of Indonesia and the influence of globalization reflected in the life of her juvenile granddaughter Tari and her sons Bakti and Dwi.

Three generations of one family weather the challenges of living in modern-day Indonesia, the largest Muslim community on the globe.

When Indonesia became independent after WW II, many Indonesian Dutchmen repatriated to the Netherlands. They were temporarily put up in contract pensions. They did not really feel welcome.