Interview with Ineke Houtman: Dutch Filmmaker.

So I was in Amsterdam. I crossed the Netherlands in my way to Hungary so speaking about the Netherlands, I thought I would share this interview with you. The Opening Night film, of the Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth, was the premiere of The Indian a film from the Netherlands. It’s about a boy adopted from Peru, who learns he is an Indigenous Peruvian and a descendant of the Inca people. Determined to embrace his roots, he goes on a journey of self-discovery in order to find out who he really is and where he comes from. Director Ineke Houtman talked to me about her film.

In a world full of people and technology, globalization is a logic consequence that leaves a lot of us with identity crises longing for truth. The wide gap between the north and the south has produced a lot of stories and interactions between humans of different latitudes. Migrants looking for better conditions, businessmen looking for cheaper resources. We all know the story, it has been told thousands of times. Among the victims of this predatory capitalism system and its displacements are the children. Mostly defenseless kids that are left aside because of poverty, disease or that become orphans due to the wars and the colonization of the so called third world. Many of these kids end up as soldiers, some are handicapped or orphaned, many of them die. The lucky ones are the ones that get to keep their life and escape unharmed. Few of these kids get adopted in the industrialized nations and are brought up as Europeans or as North Americans. The Indiaan is the story of one of these kids, Yaku who is brought up as a Dutch kid by his adopted parents. Then he starts to realize he is different in reality. His new friend, a Peruvian indian introduces him to his roots. The arrival of a natural born kid in the life of the family adds to the longing of discovery when he feels left alone.
It is not the first time and certainly not the last one that Ineke works with children and treats the topic of the search of origins and backgrounds. Her filmography includes films like Polleke, Sahara, Stille Nacht among other TV productions.
We chatted over the phone with Ineke Houtman and asked her to tell us a little about the context of the movie.

The idea came from a film about a boy from Peru that wanted to become the king of Peru and Ninke Klumpmaker, the screenwriter thought it was a interesting scene, that is how she got the idea for the script. The story is entirely fictional. She made up the story by herself and we developed it together. We were interested in the Inca culture and we investigated more about that topic. We also wanted to develop the search of the boy and how he tries to find out who he is. I wanted to make a film about a boy who finds his roots in Holland. I didn´t want to go to Peru because of the budget so we decided to set it up in Holland. The name of the kid Yaku means water so we wanted to have a city which was near the water so we shot in the north of Holland.

Was it hard to get the characters?

It was difficult, I went to the Peruvian embassy when they had a party for Peruvians, I met some people, a lot of children go there for the festivities. I started my search out there and finally we got him through an adoption association movement, so we wrote an ad and several people reacted and the boy who is in it, thought it would be nice and he auditioned. He is adopted. His friend is adopted too. The main character is from Guatemala and his friend is Peruvian. The other actors are from Peru and Ecuador. The father of the boy, Amaru was in the market selling his sweaters.

Language barriers
The boys are really Dutch, they grew up here so they see themselves as Dutch. At the Peruvian embassy I met an indian from Peru I went with him through all the ceremonies and rituals that were on the film, I wanted to be really authentic and he helped me with the Quechua language and the rituals. He was there while we were doing the shootings.

Stereotypes
We wanted to play a little bit with the stereotypes. Several Indians here play music, you see them in the markets and the festivals, so is a sort of stereotype. But, the market is where the main character meets and sees his own face. He goes into a society to see that people are diverse and he meets these people in the street. During the film he finds out that he is different but at the same time, he is also the same. At the end of the film, the concept of family is really important, family are the people that love you and what is even more important is to love them. The concept of family is different now that a 100 years ago. In Holland friends come together very often, sometimes they are more important than their brothers and sisters, so it was really important for me to show that the family has to be together.

The message to the target audience is the family?
The concept of loving other people, the people that you love are your family, in that sense.
I have made a lot of films with children, with actors and the last film that I am working on now is about a 13 years old girl with her grandpa robs a bank, but she is the only girl of colour in her family and she is also a search of her origins but it is completely different to the Indiaan.