EXCLUSIVE: The life and career of the fascist Dutch filmmaker Jan Teunissen, best known in Holland as the Dutch Leni Riefenstahl, has been examined in the IDFA competition doc The Propagandist. We can share the first official trailer for the flick above.
The Propagandist was directed by Dutch filmmaker Luuk Bouwman and produced by Ilja Roomans.
Using previously unpublished interviews, family films, and propaganda films The Propagandist tells the story of the rise and fall of Teunissen who died in 1975. As head of the Department of Film of the Dutch Nazi Party and SS, he became the most powerful man in the Dutch film industry during World War II. The official synopsis reads: What drove him to become part of the Nazi regime? The Propagandist questions the boundaries between documentary and propaganda and the role of propagandists – how they spread images, narratives, misinformation, and ideology. A documentary about boundless ambition and the manipulative power of film.
Discussing the pic, Bouwman said he first plotted the doc after discovering a seven-hour-long interview featuring Teunissen.
“This interview, along with the simple ‘whydunit’ question, became the starting point for The Propagandist,” he said. “Part psychological exploration and part film archaeology, the film unearths the thoughts and work of a forgotten group of Dutch filmmakers who dreamed of a career in cinema but ended up promoting a brutal regime. It is also a dark mirror in which we can see universal human traits that both scare and intrigue.”
The Propagandist is a Docmakers production in co-production with HUMAN supported by The Netherlands Film Fund, The Netherlands Film Production Incentive, NPO Fund, CoBO, and Sound & Vision. Amsterdam-based outlet Film Harbour is handling world sales. Cinema Delicatessen is releasing in Holland.
Check out the trailer above.