Sarah Dierckx

Documentary about the monument Joods Werkdorp.

Arnon Grunberg leaves his parental home in Amsterdam South when he is eighteen. He wants to become an actor and escape his childhood nest, his dominant mother, and his taciturn father. By now, he is 44 and returns to his parents. Arnon Grunberg leaves New York for the Netherlands to write a book about his mother, Hannelore Klein. During conversations about the war years, the tension between mother and son becomes palpable, as does the unconditional love they feel for each other. The conversations are interspersed with intimate scenes, revealing the world the writer has always carefully shielded from his public life.

Frans Bromet follows scoot drivers of different ages about their lives. He talks to them about what has changed since they got a mobility scooter, about how their living space has increased, about the limitations of the vehicle and about what is and is no longer possible in private.

The arrival of the taxi app Uber is causing anger among existing taxi drivers. If the police do not intervene, they take matters into their own hands. In Taxibotsing, Frans Bromet follows the battle waged by the established taxi world against Uber, a small online program that aims to eventually dominate the Dutch transport market. The battle is being fought on various levels. While the courts must determine whether the UberPop service is illegal (because drivers lack a license or do not pay taxes), the newcomer is an unpleasant reality for established taxi drivers. Livelihood theft, as well as resentment over colleagues going to work for the despised enemy, is turning the atmosphere on the streets grim.

Documentary about whistleblower Frits Veerman, who in the 1970s exposed the nuclear espionage at Urenco in which his Pakistani colleague Abdul Khan smuggled nuclear data out of the country. He was fired and fought for 40 years for rehabilitation. Frans Bromet examines the moral compass of the headstrong whistleblower in the politically shadowy and high-profile espionage scandal. Bromet wants to understand what underlies years of backroom politics, an intelligence agency that refuses to grant access to the file, and international interests that apparently prevail over the protection of an observant citizen by his government. The fact that the Dutch State takes no responsibility in this matter weighs heavily, literally and figuratively, on Veerman. The threat of a nuclear bomb remains real. Will a potential rehabilitation offer the satisfaction he has been waiting for forty years?

Eduard van Dijk's home has become uninhabitable. While clearing it out, emotional memories of his father, who died as a resistance fighter in the Natzweiler concentration camp, surface for Eduard. In Verstopt, Bromet follows an old friend of Eduard's: Vera. She helps to make Eduard's house habitable again. During the clearing process, it becomes clear how strongly Eduard is attached to all his belongings: with every book he picks up, he has a special memory. Will Vera succeed in making the house habitable again? And will Eduard manage to part with the items to which he feels so emotionally connected?

In 2022, 92% of those affected encountered aggression or violence. Frans Bromet portrays six influences who encounter violence while carrying out their work. The violence with which the actual consequences are, leaves personal physical, especially mental, traces.

In 1995, Frans Bromet created the successful series Opvoeden (Raising Children), in which he portrayed families facing significant parenting challenges. Twenty years later, Frans looks back on the difficult childhoods of the now-adult children. As ‘products’ of their parents, are the protagonists capable of taking a completely different approach, or does the parenting style they inherited prove to be deeply embedded in their DNA?