The Player

Colour, DIGIBETA
Netherlands, 2010, 83 min
Section: Documentary Films in Competition

Synopsis

As the topic of his latest work, renowned Dutch documentarist John Appel, whose The Last Victory screened at the KVIFF six years ago, has chosen a very delicate probe into the soul of a gambler. Indeed, his own father succumbed to the world of players, where, as one of the characters puts it, "You have no past, just a future where time doesn’t exist and where you can experience an absolutely unique feeling of freedom.” With the help of his own personal memories and archive footage, Appel tries to understand his dad’s passion for gambling. At the same time he meets Harry Engels whose list of young ex-girlfriends is as endless as that of his stories and jokes. For 30 years he has successfully made a living as a bookie. The director then pays a visit to inmate and notorious swindler Harry Hofland, who has been behind bars for ten years for a wide variety of fraudulent activities. The last of the gamblers is poker enthusiast Ted Stolzenbach, another player the filmmaker masterfully investigates on the way to revealing the psychology of gambling.

About the director

John Appel (b. 1958) graduated in classical languages and literature from the University of Amsterdam, and in cinematography and documentary filmmaking from the Dutch Film and Television Academy. Since 1987 he has shot over 30 documentaries, primarily for TV. In 2000 he founded the production company VOF Appel&Honigmann with filmmaker Heddy Honigmann. In 1999, he won the Joris Ivens Award at IDFA for the film Andre Hazes / She Believes in Me (André Hazes, zij gelooft in mij). Selected filmography: Radio Daniëlle (1988), Trench of Death (1999), Thou Shalt Not Kill (2000), Naomi & Her Mother (2003), Senegal Surplace (2003), The Last Victory (De laaste overwinning, 2003), There Goes My Heart (2005).