Knockin' on Herman's Door

Brazilian boy Gabriel Matos is still very young when he learns that the 2014 World Cup will be held in his home country. He had no way of knowing that his life would be turned upside down by then. To transport hundreds of thousands supporters to the football stadium, a new rail line is being developed to run straight through his neighborhood. Houses are being demolished, entire families are forced to move and even the children’s local football pitch will soon disappear. For Gabriel this is a nightmare. He is angry at the inequality in his city and posts self-made footage of bulldozers tearing down his neighborhood on a blog. By becoming a journalist he tries to stand up for his rights.

They live in its shadow, venerate and fear it, its whims dominate their destiny: the Iddu volcano has determined the lives of the inhabitants of Stromboli for centuries. Tourist streams and trekking queues to the volcano fill the coffers, but a violent eruption like the one in 2019 abruptly tears the island into a different reality. The force of nature confronts the population with drastic changes and questions about sustainability and mass tourism.

Robert van Gulik (1910-1967) is one of the world’s most read authors from the Netherlands. This diplomat, Sinologist and scholar is mainly known for his detective novels, starring 'Judge Dee'. Filmmaker Rob Rombout follows in his footsteps to discover the author’s legacy - via his diaries, the people he inspired and those who witnessed his extraordinary life.

An enormous shroud of white cement covers a hillside in the remote of western Sicily. It is both land art and a memorial to the town of Gibellina that was devastated by an earthquake in January 1968. It’s a work by the Italian artist Alberto Burri. He covered the ruins of the town with white cement and fissures function as pathways that wind through an area of roughly 20 acres. Petra Noordkamp captures Il Grande Cretto di Gibellina by Alberto Burri as an experentiental work of art filled with a sense of place and history.