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Beatrix, Majesteit

Documentary, 2009, 75 min.

This is not the first time documentary-maker Van Erp takes a member of the Royal Family as his subject: in Op handen gedragen (2003), he gave an account of Prince Claus' death and funeral service. The central figure in this documentary is very hard to portray for another reason; after all, where does the official function end and the person behind it begin? Van Erp followed in the queen's wake for a year, besides incorporating archive footage. But he unravels the personality enigma in an unusual way, by introducing several of the queen's namesakes. In this respect, the title could also have been Wij, Beatrix, because Van Erp uses the various personalities and their life courses to construct the queen's. For example, one Beatrix owns a debt-collection agency, which her son is shortly planned to take over, while another Beatrix nurses a man who is physically weakening. This approach is ingenious, but Van Erp also gratefully uses existing footage, like the emotional speech following the Queen's Birthday in 2009, where Beatrix' presumed 'mask' fell off for a short while.

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