Gijs van de Westelaken

An in-depth look at news stories. Documentaries that take you behind the scenes giving an insight into people's lives or institutions.

Theo van Gogh yearned for love, attention and freedom. How do his family, colleagues, friends and enemies view the radical way in which he worked and lived? And, twenty years after the murder of Theo van Gogh, how do we relate to the discussions he sparked at the time?

Dutch filmmakers gathered to make this compilation movie, consisting of 17 segments, as a reaction to the status quo in The Netherlands after the assassination of filmmaker Theo van Gogh on november 2, 2004.

One year after the assassination of Theo van Gogh, Katja Schuurman and Stan de Jong examine the government's role. They claim that 'intelligence services and the police have blundered at a large scale'. For example, it was unjustifiable that Theo van Gogh did not have government protection, and the film demonstrates that after the killing the police first examined the wrong apartment. Schuurman talks to people involved, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, with whom Van Gogh made the controversial film Submission, the Amsterdam chief public prosecutor Leo de Wit, who denies statements that were previously uttered (and filmed), and film producer Gijs van de Westelaken and chief editor of Metro Jan Dijkgraaf, who both condemn the police. Archive footage shows Theo van Gogh himself, Pim Fortuyn and the attacks in New York and Madrid; replays and close-ups of TV fragments emphasize salient statements.