Origin: Netherlands | Documentary | Director: Kees Schaap & Mark Schaap | 54 minutes

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When Are You Coming Back, Kees?

by Kees Schaap/Mark Schaap; documentary 54 min. Netherlands 2019, 54 min. Language: Dutch/Arabic. Subtitles: English

In 1987, film student Kees Schaap made a documentary about a Palestinian family living on the West Bank. They were on the verge of losing their land. Thirty years later Schaap returns, filled with doubt. Did he promise too much? Did the family expect the film to save them?
Thirty years after he last spoke to Palestinian Adnan, whose family was the subject of his first documentary, filmmaker Kees Schaap receives a voicemail message: ‘It’s been a long time! When are you coming back, Kees?’ The call prompts a return to his old friends, accompanied by his son Mark, an aspiring filmmaker himself.

But Kees is uncomfortable. When he made his film, Adnan’s family threatened to lose its land to Israeli settlers. They were hoping that by telling the world their story, their land would be saved. Now, the family’s land is gone. The film did not save them. It was seen by maybe six hundred film students. As Kees and Mark warmly reconnect with Adnan and his family and find out what life is like under Israeli occupation, they discuss a filmmaker’s responsibility. Is it your duty to show injustice that is ignored by the world?
World Premiere: Movies-that-Matter Filmfestival 2020, vertoningen op 24 en 28 maart
TV screening: 25 maart 2020 NPO2.

Official website, including full movie in Dutch:
http://episode-one.com/productions/when-are-you-coming-back

Official website, including full movie in English: https://episode-one.com/productions/when-are-you-coming-back-kees/?lang=en

Production: Episode One / VARA. www.episode-one.com

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