'This now is where the film has its shortcomings', the renowned film critic LJ Jordaan wrote about Dick Laan's feature film Boy, in which he claims 'a tulip metaphor was not transplanted correctly into reality'. Consequently, the filmmaker decided to stick to documentary. Dick Laan (1894-1973) is primarily known as the spiritual father of Pinkeltje, but before writing this popular children's book series, he was an enthusiastic filmmaker, active from World War I until shortly after World War II. This documentary plunges into the legacy of filmmaker Laan, who earned a living in his father's candy factory in the Zaanstreek region. Some film experts analyse his work and put it into a historical perspective. Some sequences show how Laan freely pioneered and adopted ideas from his experimenting contemporaries. Laan practiced several genres and treated divergent subjects, from sanatorium life to scouting. Although he was passionate about the art of filmmaking, he did not care when part of his oeuvre went up in flames.
