EXITing

In the sixties, the founders of the magazine De Nieuwe Stijl were radiant stars in the Dutch literary heavens: Cornelis Bastiaan Vaandrager, Armando, Hans Sleutelaar and Hans Verhagen. They came from the trendy world of advertising, treating writing like 'readymades'. Throughout his life, Vaandrager remained true to his ideals: you have to try everything. He became a poet, actor, father, writer, vagabond and junky, eventually ending up literally in the gutter. Rob Keers and Bob Visser made a fascinating portrait about the legendary figure of Vaandrager. They followed him for the last few months of his life on his adventurous and devastating journeys. The film portrays a celebrity who succumbs to his own ideals. Vaandrager's life is a modern fairy tale: the literary Bohemian in the big city dies lonely in a hospital. Rotterdam plays an important role in the film, a city that had a great impact on the life and work of Vaandrager. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)