You Are My Friend

Kiet Engels is the kind of teacher one wishes every schoolchild could have. She is strict but never harsh. She is loving but never soft. Her patience in endless. Miss Kiet’s pupils have only just arrived in Holland. Many are refugees. Everything is new and confusing. Some at first are quarrelsome and headstrong. But Miss Kiet’s firm but loving hand brings calm and awakens interest. She not only teaches her pupils to read and write Dutch, but also helps them learn to solve problems together and respect one another. Slowly the children gain skills and confidence.

At the opening of a new shelter for Ukrainian refugees in the Dutch city of Weesp, documentary makers Petra Lataster-Czisch and Peter Lataster join the procession of household goods, suitcases, staff members and new tenants. The camera looks on affectionately as children run around whooping with delight, rooms are furnished and the reality of a new way of life takes shape. The central meeting point is a large kitchen with a gleaming stovetop and numbered sections in the fridge for each room.

Over the years, filmmaker Jan Bosdriesz collected curious souvenirs from various countries that he cherishes. He wonders about their history. Among his favourite items are the Russian LPs by Pyotr Leschenko from the 1930s that he once inherited from his father. While Bosdriesz travels to Russia to learn more about the life of the singer whose music was forbidden in Soviet Russia, the turbulent history of the filmmaker's family is also addressed. During his trip, Bosdriesz talks to people who knew Leschenko.

Fadil is an Iraqi refugee who works as a telephone interpreter. From his attic room he translates calls between refugees and government agencies. At the start of every contact, he says: ‘I am your interpreter, I am impartial and will not interfere with this conversation.’ Even though Fadil lives in the Netherlands with his family, he knows people who still reside in war zones. How does it affect him when the witnessing of these conversations confront him with various dilemmas and let him relive his own past?

Dora Leenders is about to give birth. Since she was impregnated during a school reunion, she invites both men whom she had sex with that night to her flat to witness the birth.

If We Knew is a documentary about paediatricians in an intensive-care unit for newborns. A film about the compassion needed to heal the sick and occasionally needed to hasten the death of a child.

One in eight Dutch women gets breast cancer, which means that most people know someone who struggles with this life-threatening disease. The part of a woman's body where she is probably the most vulnerable, beautiful, proud and sexy becomes a source of despair and rage. For Ingrid, Vicky and Sabrina, breast cancer takes on various forms. They are working towards recovery through tough and painful treatment, but are acutely aware that the disease can rear its ugly head again without warning. They feel damaged and insecure, and their self-esteem is at stake, for the disease has eroded their sense of femininity. In a very personal and intimate way, Awake in a Bad Dream shows how the women and their partners try to regain control of their lives after the diagnosis. Without comment or interviews, the film follows Ingrid, Vicky and Sabrina as they face inevitable and painful choices at the hospital.

Working out using bottles as weights, talking to good friends on Zoom and after an hour deciding whether to request a new link. Suddenly noticing those two crows in the garden. Covid shrank the world of documentary-making couple Petra and Peter Lataster, so they pointed the camera at themselves, the nature in the garden, and their neighbors.