Roel van Duijn

A truthful portrait of one of the Netherlands' most important public intellectuals of the postwar era: Renate Rubinstein.

"It was a kind of flywheel that you set in motion; I couldn't turn back at all," says Hans van Mierlo in the film about his political career. That career began in 1966 when he founded the political party D66 with a number of like-minded individuals. Clearly visible from the editorial office of the Algemeen Handelsblad on the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam, the unrest was crowing, fueled by Provo. The pillar society, which had kept the Netherlands afloat for so long, was no longer adequate. That was his analysis, and a much more direct democracy would have to take its place.

Dit was het nieuws is a Dutch television program of RTL4, wherein two teams give a satirical account of the previous week's news. The program has the form of a game show in which two teams, each with a team leader and weekly guest, compete against each other. The scoring is not serious; after the first round, for instance, the score is always 4-4.