Elsy Keppler

Botselingen (Collisions) is one of three surviving short films from the Fllmtechnische Leergang (Film Technical Course). Like Sonate by Emiel van Moerkerken and Diepte by Frans Dupont, the film provides valuable insight into the ideas and ambitions behind the FTL.

Film experiment, made at the Filmtechnische Leerlangen (FTL). The makers of this 'absolute film' write in their introduction: 'This film only wants to be harmony; it is not a depiction of a certain subject.' The film shows abstract and figurative drawings that move and alternate. Balls, circles, lines, but also drawings of women, men and flats move across the screen. The only photographic images are those of card players. Prominent Filmliga member, filmmaker and FTL teacher Willem Bon was responsible for the colour technique.

A spy story set in the future year 1950, about a detective on the trail of a spy. The League of Nations threatens the Netherlands with a blockade if secret arms deliveries to a warring country, Paruma, do not cease. After a long chase, the head of the Dutch secret service manages to unmask the arms smuggler, Consul Charkuf of Paruma. The film was made by students of the Film-Technische Leergang, a film course that originated from the Studio Joris Ivens and was influenced by foreign avant-garde film. Only a few scenes have been preserved.