Info

De Waarheid (2021)

Name: De Waarheid
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2025-05-05T14:08:41+02:00
Rating: 3.11
Cast: Klaas de Vries, Jan Mans, Roelof Jan Manschot

Documentary | 93 minutes

3,11 22 votes

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1 comment

Genre: Documentary

Duration: 93 minuten

Country: Netherlands

Directed by: Pieter Fleury

Stars: Klaas de Vries, Jan Mans, Roelof Jan Manschot

This movie is not available on US streaming services.

De Waarheid plot

Many people were involved in the fireworks disaster in Enschede in 2000. Hundreds were injured in the disaster, a residential area was swept away and 23 people died. It has been established that a lot has gone wrong. How do those responsible deal with this afterwards? By means of in-depth interviews with those involved, we zoom in on the decisions and processes of that time. Using the disaster as an example, director Pieter Fleury seeks an answer to the far-reaching question: is the fear of being blamed so great that people shy away from responsibility?

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mrklm

11374 messages
9897 votes

28 February 2021 at 21:07

Fleury managed to get almost all the main players in the fireworks disaster in Enschede and its aftermath in front of the camera. 20 years later, the wounds still seem to be deep in the people who were blamed for (and feel guilty about) the disaster, while other people involved mainly do their best to make it clear that they were formally responsible, but not guilty. The self-assured story of somewhat pedantic Jan Mans, mayor of Enschede at the time, stands in stark contrast to the suppressed anger of Rudi Bakker, the owner of the fireworks factory, and the inner pain of the civil servant who had approved the permit that should not have been approved in retrospect. Fleury asks the right questions and in doing so probably comes as close as possible to an understandable version of 'the truth'. The use of black and white images for the interviews makes the archive images of the disaster in color all the more poignant.