Hamartía - More or Less Louis van Gasteren

Director Rudolf van den Berg (Süskind, 2012) has known his fellow filmmaker Louis van Gasteren for 30 years. In every one of the countless conversations they have had, Van Gasteren has made reference to Van Den Berg’s Jewish identity. They share a fascination for World War II, a subject that is a common denominator through both of their works. In 2007, Van Gasteren gave Van Den Berg unlimited access to his oeuvre of more than 80 films. Van Den Berg forgot to ask why he was chosen to act as Van Gasteren’s biographer. In subsequent years, the director frequently filmed Van Gasteren at home in Amsterdam and at different locations throughout the city. Their conversation always ends up at the same tragedy. In 1943, 21-year-old Louis van Gasteren killed a Jewish refugee in his house in Amsterdam. After the war, Van Gasteren always stridently maintained that it had been an act of resistance – in 1989, he even publically announced that he would make a film about what happened. Van Gasteren’s admirer Van Den Berg investigates why this film was never made and, alongside his filmography, zooms in on Van Gasteren’s permanent inner struggle with World War II. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)