Kurzfilm
Buurthuis 2
Ein Immobilienentwickler, der ein Vampir ist, will das örtliche Gemeindehaus in ein luxuriöses Spa umwandeln. Die Stadtbewohner werden nervös. Der Vampir ruft einen Freund zu Hilfe: ein Magier, der einen Zauber auf die Nachbarschaft legt, um die Bewohner zu vertreiben. Doch schon bald organisieren die Nachbarn Widerstand.
Produktionsland
Niederlande – 2023
Laufzeit
00:17:03
Regie
Josefin Arnell
About Buurthuis 2
Buurthuis 2 is a fantasy film realized with the community center De Witte Boei in Amsterdam’s Wittenburg neighborhood. Visitors and staff take on the roles of vampires, wizards, and zombies. Anchored by a Dutch fairytale about the pitfalls of preposterous wealth, the plot and characters were developed in scriptwriting workshops together with the artist.
The film draws from and reflects on the historic social ideals of community centers in the Netherlands, that used to serve as a tool to educate the lower classes. What does it mean to be a “good” citizen in the context of increasing wealth disparity, housing shortages, and welfare cuts?
Josefin Arnell
Josefin Arnell (1984, Sweden) lives and works in Amsterdam. The work by Josefin Arnell defines a loaded visual language combining anger, desire, disgust and pleasure. Her films and works present complex realities, socially marginalized characters and absurd fictionalization. Her film work extends to performance, installation, objects, poetry or drawings. Through storytelling loosely narratives are often centered around characters that try to navigate in contemporary infrastructures with impossible demands. In 2015 and 2016 she participated in the residency program at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. In 2018 she won the Theodora Niemeijer Prijs for emerging female artists in the Netherlands. In 2023 she was nominated for the art prize Prix de Rome Netherlands with a presentation at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. In addition to her solo work, she is involved in multiple collaborations and together with Max Göran she forms the artist duo HellFun.
Places where her work has been shown include: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; WIELS, Brussels; Cell Project Space, London; Index, Stockholm; UKS, Oslo; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; Athens Biennale; Moscow International Biennale for Young Art; Auto Italia, London; Kunsthalle Münster, Rencontres Internationales, Paris/Berlin and IDFA International Documentary Film festival Amsterdam.
Director Statement
I live next to the community center De Witte Boei (Wittenburg, Amsterdam) and observed it for many months – watching the rhythms and interactions. I saw people hanging out: teenagers would gather on one side of the building and mostly elderly on the other side. I was curious. I started going to Dutch language nights and to a weekly lunch at the community centre to meet people and get to know the neighbourhood. Because of a fatal gang shooting in 2018, the community center De Witte Boei was one of the few community centers in the city that received an injection of money, after the big welfare budget cuts in 2012. The impact of the shooting is still being processed in the neighborhood. While neighborly conflicts linger, police and social workers are doing their best to mediate – however powerless they are about processes of gentrification as well as class and race conflicts. In The Netherlands, the so-called Buurthuizen date back to the 19th century as a tool to culturally educate the lower classes. What does it mean to be a ‘good’ citizen? I am interested in how fiction can help us to reimagine this question, thinking of storytelling as a form of resistance, a socio-political activity that can involve different groups of people.
I was impressed with the number of activities happening there: knitting, cooking, social support groups, choir, computer lessons. Once I had connected with people who worked there, I shared the idea of making a film in the community centre. I then led 10 weeks of open script workshops, where neighbors could come and contribute ideas about the script, and this is how I got to know the people who ultimately performed in the film.
I’ve wanted to make a horror film for a long time, but my characters always ended up being too funny. It was never scary enough. I believe horror can highlight and underscore social, interpersonal, or cultural issues, and because of its reliance on exaggeration, it creates a distance that opens new conversations. In the script workshops we talked about horror and gentrification became the most hardcore horror we all could relate to; we all had something to say about it. So, we brought in a wizard and a vampire into the script to do what wizards and vampires do: cast spells and wreak havoc and suck energy – or blood. The vampire is the most evil character: she doubles as a real estate developer. The local gardeners are garden zombies. Zombies are interesting as they are lifeless and apathetic and they are supposed to be lacking any will, they are victims of capitalism but at the same
I think they are anarchists. Most importantly, they are ubiquitous. Zombies appear in my film as a film in the film. We are zombies watching zombies.
Cast & Crew
Executive producer – Josefin Arnell and Lukas Heistinger
Director – Josefin Arnell
Director assistant – Levi van Gelder
Produced by – Helena Julian
Director of Photography – Sasha Kulak
Second camera – Lukas Heistinger
Gaffer – Linus Kropp
Sound recording – Vitalij Kuzkin
Sound composer – Simone Borghi (aka Morning Seance)
Orchestra – Stichting Accu
Sound engineering- Kenny Kneefel
Edit – Josefin Arnell
Contributing editors – Lukas Hesitinger, Gijs Onvlee, Gregory Samson
Color grading – Anton Zimerman
Head of Post Production: Lukas Heistinger
Script writing workshop – Mirjam Ok, Ingrid Bisschop, Sabine Beilfuss, Ivanildo Lins, Lizzy Soenarjati, Angel Sastro, Jenny Tjin Liep Shie
Script advisor – Eli Leven
Manual special effects – Heleen Mineur
Acting coach – Sipan Sezgin Tekin
Costume designer – Leila El Alaoui
Costume designer assistant – Bianca Huisman Makeup and SFX – Suzanne Breur
Makeup and SFX assistant – Joshua Grabbe, Ylaise Boukes
Additional make up Zombies – Clémence Lollia Hilaire, George McGoldrick, Molly Palmer
Animal handler – Erik Sabel
Runners – Jiyeon Izzy Lee, Romaine Gijsberti Hodenpijl
Creative supervision – Annie Goodner
Titel design – Edgar Walthert
Subtitles – InVision
Vampire – Sabine Beilfuss
Wizard – Wensley Kleberg
City man – Leo Westra
Receptionist – Marlène van den Camp
Friend – Niki Koegler
Chef – Atef Abdalla
Egg man / Rapper – Mark Janssen
Biking boy 1- Damian Prenger
Biking boy 2 – Alex Oktay
Biking boy 3 – Martain Oktay
Man spying from balcony – Ivanildo Lins
Zombies: Alysa van Koulil, Anoek Harrewijn, Isabel Mercedes, Judith de Lange,
Lizzy Soenarjati, Marijke Al, Melissa Huizer, Mischa Heijselaar, Muse Chang,
Patricia van der Linden, Samira Khalife, Sanne Harrewijn, Steven Speek, Tamara Reuser, Taya Ahmed
Knitting: Christina van Zeelt, Dhanu Jogi, Inke Kuijper, Lizzy Soenarjati, Marijke Al, Tamara Reuser, Wil Kooijman, Willie Krop
Lunch: Harry Schooneveldt, Ingrid Schootman, Lea Abdulhak, Marijke Al Sanne van den Eijnde, Tamara Reuser
Hand models – Victor Tilgenkamp, Toon Leemans
Special thanks to the team at Witte Boei:
Atef Abdalla, Petra Wisse, Sevda Aydin, Sonja De Leth Project supervision – Angelique Wijnberg
Plukbos Wittenburg and Stichting Accu
Supported by: Mondriaan Fonds, Produced for Prix de Rome 2023 Thank you team at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Additional support by: Andrea Davina, Berber Meindertsma, Josilda da Conceição, Willem Asselbergs, Matthias Boswinkel, Inge C de Bruin
