At the end of World War I, the Flemish poet and writer Paul van Ostaijen fled to Berlin. He was afraid to be apprehended by Belgian justice for his Flemish activism during the war. In Berlin, he got acquainted with the radical and nihilistic Dadaist art movement. In 1920, Van Ostaijen wrote the film script for De Jazz van het Bankroet, dealing with the Communist Spartacus uprising (led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht). Director Frank Herrebout adapted the scenario for the screen, merely incorporating authentic film fragments from the archives of the Film Museum, intercut by texts on title cards from Van Ostaijen's script. Music obviously plays a major role in the film. Original recordings of jazz concerts by Duke Ellington and others, but also music by Wagner, are complemented with the compositions of Wouter van Bemmel.
