After winning Oscars for 12 Years a Slave [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], which will be a history of Amsterdam under Nazi occupation amidst World War II.

The film is budgeted at over $5 million – a large figure for a movie of this type – and US producers A24 and New Regency have boarded as co-financiers and international rights holders, joining Film4 and Lammas Park from the UK, and Family Affair Films from the Netherlands. Floor Onrust from the latter company is producing. Further partners on the Dutch-UK-US co-production are the Netherlands Film Fund, the Mondriaan Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.

First announced three years ago, the film is based on a book by McQueen’s wife, journalist and filmmaker Bianca Stigter, entitled Atlas of an Occupied City. Amsterdam 1940-1945. A previous statement by the Netherlands Film Fund went, “Living in Amsterdam is like living with spirits. It looks like there are two parallel worlds. The past is always present.” A large element of the film will be looking at the Amsterdam of the present, and bringing out its “hidden history” and “traces” of the past. McQueen himself has been based in the city for several decades now.

New Regency, McQueen’s collaborator on 12 Years a Slave and Widows [+lire aussi :
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interview : Steve McQueen
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interview : Bianca Stigter
fiche film] showing at this month’s Sundance, after premiering in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori last year.