Experiencing Interruptions?

Holding Silence

Three artisans from Asian decent – a martial artist, a pastry chef and an animator – find In the focus of their crafts the silence, who invites each of them on a journey along their family history line.

After a seemingly random phone call martial arts teacher Kierty Verbooy connects with his long lost Indian father, setting him on a path that helps him making sense of his life’s choices and innate need for balance.

The often times realistic Hoang is destined to take over the family business in Vietnamese pastry. But in the focus of her work she longs for a quietness and tries to deal with the vast ambitions of her mother.

Animation director Yiuloon finds connection with his deceased father through his animations about Chinese lion dancers. Reflecting on his two children, he is committed to create a more outspoken relationship than the one he grew up in.

  • André Kloer
    Director
    Liever de lucht in
  • Joris van de Weerd
    Writer
  • Genny van 't Veer
    Producer
  • Swaze Hartog
    Producer
  • Christina Muller
    Creative Producer
    Fortune in the throat
  • Kierty Verbooy
    Key Cast
  • Hoang Nguyen
    Key Cast
  • Yiu-Loon Lee
    Key Cast
  • Herman Witkam
    Composer
    Mees Kees
  • André Kloer
    Editor
    Liever de lucht in
  • Daan Veldhuizen
    Editor
    Banana Pancakes and the Children of Sticky Rice
  • Stefan Meutstege
    Sound designer
    De Luizenmoeder
  • Pablo Núñez Palma
    Sound recorder
  • Amir Bar
    Sound recorder
  • André Kloer
    Color grader
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    In handen van stilte
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 26 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Netherlands
  • Country of Filming:
    Netherlands
  • Language:
    Dutch
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • CinemAsia Film Festival
    Amsterdam
    Netherlands
    April 1, 2019
    World premiere
    FilmLAB Jury Award, Audience Award
  • Unknown Film Festival
    Yekaterinburg
    Russian Federation
    June 27, 2020
    Asian premiere
    Official Selection
  • Snake Alley Festival of Film
    Burlington, Iowa
    United States
    July 30, 2020
    North American premiere
    Official Selection
  • Short Film Factory
    Bucharest
    Romania
    June 24, 2020
    International premiere
    Award winner
  • MakeDox
    Skopje
    Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of
    August 19, 2020
    Macedonian premiere
    Official Selection
Distribution Information
  • André Kloer
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
  • Shiko Boxman
    Sales Agent
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
  • Martijn van Veen
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - André Kloer

André Kloer is a cinematographer and director who grew up in a mixed Indonesian - Dutch family. He has studied post-colonial literature at the University of Leiden and worked as a video journalist for a number of online outlets. As a director he captured people’s dreams in the poetic documentary 'Liever de lucht in' about his current neighborhood in multicultural Amsterdam-West, that has premiered at the Dutch Film Festival. His documentary about Palestinian labour rights in Israeli settlements was nominated for the Loep Award for Research Journalism. In his work as videographer of corporate video’s Kloer specializes in personal storytelling and identity.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

When my mixed Dutch-Indonesian father was hospitalized for a high risk surgery on a huge aneurysm in his aorta, I visited him, something I hardly did. He was chatting non-stop to me, afraid for a possible awkward silence between us. That silence was of greater concern then the coming surgery that may lead to the end of his life.

At the same time, there was a particular silence that was present: his unspoken past in Indonesia, me being gay, my mother's history of being sexual abused. These things were at the root of my fascination with the unspoken and the silence. Much later, I came to understand I had to confront the silence myself in order to heal me from the lack of parental connection and my weak sense of self.

Working many hours behind a computer with internet and social media under everyone of my fingertips, I had the feeling that my distracted mind was drifting even further away from who I was. And I wondered: does working in the real world with the hands - instead of in a virtual world behind a computer screen - helps us to be more in focus, in a silent presence, in the here and now?