Introducing: De Maalstroom
20 December 2020
Teddy Cherim began his career by writing and directing Sterke Verhalen, a comedy set in Amsterdam, which in 2010 made him the youngest Dutch director to have a full nationwide release. After a documentary project on Syrian refugee camps in 2013, he spent a number of years pursuing social and humanitarian filmmaking, and worked for a spell at a television company in Nairobi, Kenya. He has directed a VR documentary Meet The Soldier, shot in Uganda, as well as an NTR Kort about a Ghanaian prince. With De Maalstroom he seeks to combine his abilities in fiction filmmaking in his home country with humanitarian concerns.
The film is a “tragicomic, modern epic” according to Cherim, dealing with the quintessential Dutch settings of canals and inland cargo vessels, which Chermin uses as a familiar starting point to tell an important story about Europe and current issues surrounding migration. Joining the director at CineMart will be producer Marten van Warmerdam from Amsterdam-based company Graniet Film and writer Kim Kokosky Deforchaux. “Marten and I have worked on this story for years and Kim joined the team as screenwriter two years ago”, says Cherim.
“What really brought us all together” he continues, “is our drive to tell stories that are fun, inspiring, but also about important societal challenges and specifically the migration crisis in Europe and the Netherlands. The setting is the brilliantly interesting and filmic world of inland cargo vessels on the canals and rivers of continental Europe.” The story concerns Jan, a captain of one such cargo vessel, who must rush back home for the funeral of his mother. On the way his vessel becomes a camp for African migrants, which gives Jan’s process of grief, guilt and mourning an entirely new meaning. “Once the vessel is ‘invaded’ we create a very interesting analogy with the current migration crisis.”
Chermin concludes with a positive message about his expectations for IFFR 2021: “We are very excited for CineMart, where we hope to find some partners and get important feedback and advice on the path to the realisation of our film.”
