Dealing with Death

Dir. by Paul Sin Nam Rigter, Netherlands, 2020, 73´ & 52´

World Premiere: IDFA 2020 – Best Film in Competition for Dutch Documentary, IP: Available

Territories: World except of Netherlands; Exclusive subject: Festivals & sales

In the Bijlmer, in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, every culture has its own rituals around death. Funeral manager Anita has the task of attracting all those cultures to her soon to be built multicultural funeral home in the middle of the Bijlmer. Anita sets out on a tour to get to know this unfamiliar world. But the deeper she penetrates, the more she realises how little she knows about the Bijlmer’s different cultures. She is a white Dutchwoman in a ‘multicoloured’ society.

Is this new funeral home uniting all cultures under a single roof
fulfilling the Bijlmer’s needs, or is it the vision of a funeral company that hopes to conquer the market? Anita continues to do her best to win over the Bijlmer, but when she is confronted with death in her own life and she distances herself from the project, the question is whether the new funeral home will ever be built.

Category: Human Interest, Society, Multiculturalism, Rituals, Religion, Portrait

First Feature Film

DIRECTOR

Paul Sin Nam Rigter was adopted from South Korea by a Dutch family at the age of three. While studying communication science, he made his debut as an actor with Toneelgroep Amsterdam and has since appeared in plays, TV series and films. He directed the short films LUX and Zoete Tomaat (Sweet Tomato), the documentary Playing for the Past and The Nose – In search of Blamage and he wrote and directed the thee-part documentary series Heroes of the Maxima.