De Propagandist

Through previously unpublished interviews, diary excerpts, family films, and propaganda films, De Propagandist tells the rise and fall of Dutch filmmaker Jan Teunissen (1898-1975). Born into a wealthy and influential family, Teunissen was given the opportunity early on to pursue his ambitions as a filmmaker. During World War II, he became the most powerful man in the Dutch film industry. As head of the film department of the NSB and SS, he earned the nicknames "the film tsar" and "the Dutch Leni Riefenstahl." After the war, Teunissen was prosecuted and punished, but he continued to speak proudly about his cunning and his ties to the elite of the Nazi regime. The documentary gradually unfolds the portrait of a complex man and his motivations. At the same time, the film questions the boundaries between documentary and propaganda, highlighting the role of propagandists—how they spread images, stories, disinformation, and ideology. A film about boundless ambition and the manipulative power of cinema.