Using previously unpublished interviews, family movies and propaganda films, Luuk Bouwman’s The Propagandist tells the story of the rise and fall of Dutch filmmaker Jan Teunissen (1898-1975). As head of the Department of Film of the Dutch Nazi Party and the Dutch SS, he became the most powerful man in the national film industry during World War II. Teunissen, nicknamed the “Film King” and the “Dutch Leni Riefenstahl”, was a well-known filmmaker before the war. What drove him to become part of the Nazi regime?

The Propagandist, set to premiere in the International Competition of this year’s IDFA (14-24 November), questions the boundaries between documentary and propaganda, and the role of propagandists – how they spread images, narratives, misinformation and ideology. The team labels it as “a documentary about boundless ambition and the manipulative power of film”.

“After finishing my previous film, All Against All - An Archaeology of Fascism in the Netherlands, I discovered a seven-hour-long interview with Dutch National-Socialist filmmaker Jan Teunissen. This interview, along with the simple ‘whydunit’ question, became the starting point for The Propagandist. Part psychological exploration and part film archaeology, the doc unearths the thoughts and work of a forgotten group of Dutch filmmakers who dreamed of a career in cinema but ended up promoting a brutal regime. It is also a dark mirror in which we can see universal human traits that both scare and intrigue,” the director explained.

The Propagandist is a Docmakers (Netherlands) production in co-production with HUMAN (Netherlands), supported by the Netherlands Film Fund, the Netherlands Film Production Incentive, the NPO Fund, CoBO and Sound & Vision. Amsterdam-based outfit Film Harbour is handling its world sales, while Cinema Delicatessen serves as the Dutch distributor.

Check out our exclusive poster below:

(© Docmakers/HUMAN)