Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich

Production

Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich

Born

1955-11-08 (70)

Place of birth

Bandoeng, Java

Known for

Production

Credits

14 titles

Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich (Dutch born 1955, Bandoeng) raised in the Netherlands, is the director of Scarabeefilms (Netherlands). She has produced several award-winning documentaries. Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich started her career teaching Dutch language and Social Sciences in the Netherlands and on Curaçao (1979–1987). In 1989 she founded the film production company Scarabeefilms, which grew into an internationally active operation. She participated in the Twinning Programme of the E.U.-funded Media Business School and at the Amsterdam’s Binger Institute. In April 2004, Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich received the bi-annual Martha Hering Award for Dutch women in film and media who ha…

Known for

Balkan Baroque poster
6.4

Balkan Baroque is a real and imaginary biography of the Yugoslavian performance artist Marina Abramovic. Rather than a mechanical reproduction of the artist's work, the film tries to create a new reality by translating the performances into cinematographic images that intensify the fictional context of the film. Abramovic plays herself, but ,appearing in multiple forms, blurs her own identity. Memories and fantasies intermingle with day to day rituals. The chronological narrative often breaks to reflect the interior voyage of the protagonist from the present to the past and back to the present. The result is a visually impressive film. Balkan Baroque had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, 1999.

Balkan Baroque

1999

The Eye of the Day poster
7.3

The Eye of the Day documents the lives of sixty-year-old Rumijah, her two sons Bakti and Dwi, and her friend Ibu Sum. In cinéma vérité fashion, filmmaker Helmrich captures the trials and tribulations of everyday life in 1990s Indonesia. While filming a demonstration in 1995, Helmrich was arrested and jailed as a suspected spy, then declared persona non grata. He was not able to return to Indonesia until 1997 - that same year he began following Rumidjah and her family with his camera.

The Eye of the Day

2001

Raw Herring poster
3.5

Every year millions of people look forward to the first preparation of Hollandse Nieuwe, the popular snack of raw herring from the North Sea’s spring catch. But how do you find glory in the grueling pursuit of a once-iconic fish that even the queen no longer accepts as definitively Dutch? Raw Herring celebrates the cultural legacy maintained by Holland’s last great herring fishers even as new trends and foreign competition threaten their way of life.

Raw Herring

2013

Position Among the Stars poster
8.4

Through the eyes of grandmother Rumidjah, a poor old Christian woman living in the slums of Jakarta, we see the economical changing society of Indonesia and the influence of globalization reflected in the life of her juvenile granddaughter Tari and her sons Bakti and Dwi.

Position Among the Stars

2011

Anak Indië poster
5.8

No synopsis available yet.

Anak Indië

2025

Buitenkampers poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Buitenkampers

2013

Behind the camera

Balkan Baroque poster
6.4

Balkan Baroque is a real and imaginary biography of the Yugoslavian performance artist Marina Abramovic. Rather than a mechanical reproduction of the artist's work, the film tries to create a new reality by translating the performances into cinematographic images that intensify the fictional context of the film. Abramovic plays herself, but ,appearing in multiple forms, blurs her own identity. Memories and fantasies intermingle with day to day rituals. The chronological narrative often breaks to reflect the interior voyage of the protagonist from the present to the past and back to the present. The result is a visually impressive film. Balkan Baroque had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, 1999.

Balkan Baroque

1999

The Eye of the Day poster
7.3

The Eye of the Day documents the lives of sixty-year-old Rumijah, her two sons Bakti and Dwi, and her friend Ibu Sum. In cinéma vérité fashion, filmmaker Helmrich captures the trials and tribulations of everyday life in 1990s Indonesia. While filming a demonstration in 1995, Helmrich was arrested and jailed as a suspected spy, then declared persona non grata. He was not able to return to Indonesia until 1997 - that same year he began following Rumidjah and her family with his camera.

The Eye of the Day

2001

Raw Herring poster
3.5

Every year millions of people look forward to the first preparation of Hollandse Nieuwe, the popular snack of raw herring from the North Sea’s spring catch. But how do you find glory in the grueling pursuit of a once-iconic fish that even the queen no longer accepts as definitively Dutch? Raw Herring celebrates the cultural legacy maintained by Holland’s last great herring fishers even as new trends and foreign competition threaten their way of life.

Raw Herring

2013

Position Among the Stars poster
8.4

Through the eyes of grandmother Rumidjah, a poor old Christian woman living in the slums of Jakarta, we see the economical changing society of Indonesia and the influence of globalization reflected in the life of her juvenile granddaughter Tari and her sons Bakti and Dwi.

Position Among the Stars

2011

Position Among the Stars poster
8.4

Through the eyes of grandmother Rumidjah, a poor old Christian woman living in the slums of Jakarta, we see the economical changing society of Indonesia and the influence of globalization reflected in the life of her juvenile granddaughter Tari and her sons Bakti and Dwi.

Position Among the Stars

2011

Anak Indië poster
5.8

No synopsis available yet.

Anak Indië

2025

Anak Indië poster
5.8

No synopsis available yet.

Anak Indië

2025

Buitenkampers poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Buitenkampers

2013

Shape of the Moon poster
7.0

Three generations of one family weather the challenges of living in modern-day Indonesia, the largest Muslim community on the globe.

Shape of the Moon

2005

Eat Your Enemy poster
NR

Eat Your Enemy is a documentary about martial arts and aggression, about spirituality, winning and losing, about suffering and vanity. And about East and West, muscle and mind power. About masters and students. A film full of paradoxes. Violence and its prevention are important themes in our society, and we are each involved in one way or the other. Aggression is bad, is the prevailing opinion. We, in the West, have begun to consider ourselves too civilized to fight. We fight with words and on the off chance that something does go wrong, a trauma team is at hand. Nevertheless, people continue to have a need to fight; take the violence during soccer matches. But in fact, we don't know how to handle aggression. In this film, several approaches to the martial arts in the West and the East are highlighted. The essence of the film is philosophical, but disguised as fight. Not as much a fight against an opponent but rather against oneself.

Eat Your Enemy

2005

Klanken van oorsprong poster
NR

Documentary film about the influence of the Dutch-Indo history on modern pop music in the Netherlands.

Klanken van oorsprong

2018

Contractpensions - Djangan loepah! poster
NR

When Indonesia became independent after WW II, many Indonesian Dutchmen repatriated to the Netherlands. They were temporarily put up in contract pensions. They did not really feel welcome.

Contractpensions - Djangan loepah!

2008

Contractpensions - Djangan loepah! poster
NR

When Indonesia became independent after WW II, many Indonesian Dutchmen repatriated to the Netherlands. They were temporarily put up in contract pensions. They did not really feel welcome.

Contractpensions - Djangan loepah!

2008

Contractpensions - Djangan loepah! poster
NR

When Indonesia became independent after WW II, many Indonesian Dutchmen repatriated to the Netherlands. They were temporarily put up in contract pensions. They did not really feel welcome.

Contractpensions - Djangan loepah!

2008