Benny Lindelauf

After ‘De Ballonvaarder’ (the film I wrote for the streaming service Disney+), I didn’t expect to make another film anytime soon. It is often a long process full of uncertainties and with a limited budget. Enter ‘Zapp Campus’ from the public broadcaster. They launched a competition for an animated film for children. The directing duo Janneke Swinkels and Tim Frijsinger (under the name Murmur) had read ‘Hele Verhalen voor een Halve Soldaat’ and were eager to collaborate. Would ‘Duizend Vadem’, a story from that collection, be suitable? Producer Peter Lindhout also came on board. The four of us developed a plan, which was approved for development. Now the VPRO also joined in as co-producer. Of the 22 applications, only four remained. And only two scripts would actually be made. We got to work again. I wrote the script for the animated film, Janneke and Tim set to work on the visuals and director’s vision, and Peter threw himself into the production aspects. After that, it was a nail-biting wait again. When we received the joyful news, I thought: uh… yes, but shouldn’t this have taken much longer? Fortunately, the film is stop-motion, which means it will be shot frame by frame. So it will take another year or two before the film can be seen on NPO. I’ll need some patience after all…