Fons Rademakers plot
When Fons Rademakers made the switch from theater to film in the late 1950s, making feature films in the Netherlands was far from self-evident. In those days, film was synonymous with documentaries, thanks to people like Bert Haanstra and Joris Ivens. His first film, Dorp aan de Rivier (1958), was also the first Dutch feature film nominated for an Oscar; just like Rademakers was the first to win one, for The Attack (1986). The director, who made his last film in 1989 with The Rose Garden, looks back on his career from his home in Italy. He talks about his friendship with Hugo Claus, who wrote the screenplays for five of his eleven feature films, and about his collaboration with people such as WF Hermans, Orson Welles, Ingmar Bergman and his wife and colleague Lili Rademakers.