“The inquiring nature of my films fits Rotterdam well”: filmmaker David Verbeek on his special relationship with IFFR
Filmmaker David Verbeek returns to Rotterdam this year with his newest feature The Wolf, The Fox & The Leopard. It’s the ninth time one of his works has been screened at IFFR. We talked to Verbeek about his relationship with the festival, which has been a recurring theme throughout his career.
IFFR played an important role in Verbeeks very first film. He filmed Beat (2004), a moody drama about a man suffering from burnout, for next to nothing when he was still a student at the Nederlandse Filmacademie. Without any expectations, he sent his debut film to IFFR, where it immediately got selected for the main programme. “As a film student, hungry for recognition, it meant everything to me,” he says. “It was the starting point of my career: that moment gave me the confidence to really go for it.”
Offering young filmmakers a major stage has always been one of IFFR’s main strengths, Verbeek says. “It’s one of the most visited film festivals in the world, but there’s no heavy atmosphere of prestige; as a film student, you can easily bump into renowned filmmakers. Everyone meets everyone else, whether your work is selected or not. That might be the most fun, and most valuable part of IFFR.”
Verbeek – mainly known for his films Full Contact (IFFR 2016), R U There (2010) and How to Describe a Cloud (IFFR 2013) – returns for the ninth time to Rotterdam with his newest feature The Wolf, The Fox & The Leopard. In this unpredictable and philosophical drama, we follow a girl raised among wolves, who finds herself in contemporary society as the world heads for an all-consuming climate disaster.
“Like in almost all my films, I try to address a universally relevant theme in an unconventional way,” Verbeek says. “My work has an inquiring and experimental nature, and I think that fits IFFR very well: in Rotterdam, novelty is a major theme. The audience is open to being surprised.”
“My work has an inquiring and experimental nature, and I think that fits IFFR very well: in Rotterdam, novelty is a major theme”
In that same vein, Verbeek is enthusiastic about IFFR programmes like Art Directions, in which there’s space for experimentation and projects that go beyond the traditional film screen. The past edition included Safe.Self.Sense, a three channel video installation with live performance Verbeek created with his creative partner Yu He Lin.
“I don’t believe the traditional way of watching a film – in a movie theater – will change anytime soon,” Verbeek says. “But I do see that people tend to forget that contextual aspect. Home cinema’s are getting bigger and bigger, and the younger generation is perfectly fine with watching a film on their phones. In that situation, it’s good to organise events a visitor really has to be there for, things you can’t stream online, later. Events with a certain museum-like aspect, in which an interaction takes place between the viewer, the space, and the image. I think it’s great that IFFR has been offering a platform for this over the years.”
Verbeeks work has been selected for CineMart several times, like in 2020 when he was there with The Wolf, The Fox & The Leopard. His participation helped him get projects off the ground, and find international co-producers.”What is great about CineMart, is that film professionals from all over the world find each other. It puts the Dutch film industry in touch with other industries, in a very low-key kind of way. As a filmmaker, it’s always useful – even if it’s just because you’re pitching ideas to so many listeners, and this way, you get an idea of what will work.”
Verbeek is currently working on The Thieving Mantra, a film about a romantic relationship mediated by AI. Sounds like a promising feature, that would fit well in Rotterdam. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Verbeek: “Let’s first see how I’ll get the film made.”
– by Cas Hoekstra
