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The Sixth of May (06/05)



cast :

Thijs Römer, Tara Elders, Cahit Ölmez

crew :

Directed by: Theo van Gogh
Written by: Tomas Ross, Theo van Gogh
Produced by: Gijs van de Westelaken
DOP: Alex de Waal, Joost van Herwijnen, Thomas Kist
Editor: Merel Notten
Music Score by: Rainer Hensel

release date :

2004

To British audiences’ the sixth of May will seem like an unremarkable date to name a film after but to the Dutch this day in 2002 will always hold significant resonance. However even their reaction to this momentous day will depend on which side of the political fence they sit upon, and in turn the film of the same name is also highly likely to divide opinions, more because of the ideologies it represents rather than its pro-filmic qualities. ‘The Sixth of May’ (2004) depicts a fictionalised account of what happened following the real-life cold-blooded assassination of politician Pim Fortuyn. In this respect it almost resembles a Dutch equivalent of ‘JFK’ (Oliver Stone, 1991) only shot using a heavily European style. Like its American counterpart ‘The Sixth of May’ entertains many conspiracy theories surrounding a relatively high-profile political murder, only in this instance the killer confessed months later, and the rather mundane facts were laid bare for all to see. Still, both films encourage the blurring of reality and fiction and both use fictional narrative frameworks to make sense of distressing, hard facts.


It is also worth noting at this point that the director himself, Theo Van Gogh, was assassinated shortly after this film’s release, thus adding another layer of interest that may colour people’s reactions, especially those interested in world politics. Theo Van Gogh was a famously outspoken columnist and journalist who regularly got fired from many newspapers for his caustic and outspoken views on politics and religion. His interest in theatre led him into film directing however, but he quickly used the form as simply another platform for his uncompromising political views. However, it was his 2004 short film ‘Submission’ that provoked his very public murder rather than this one. Van Gogh was fiercely critical of the Muslim religion and, like many right-leaning people his views became increasingly more vocal following 9/11. Topical Islam-phobia or not, the films images of naked, faceless Muslim woman with verses from the Koran projected onto their bodies as they perform monologues conveying the apparent mistreatment of woman authorized in the Koran was enough to encourage Dutch Muslim Mohammed Bouyeri to very publicly assassinate him in the most brutal way possible. A letter attached to a dagger stabbed through his body linked his death to the film and his general views regarding the religion of Islam. Aside from drawing attention to the use of extreme violence in the name of religion, Van Gogh’s death also prompted debates regarding freedom of speech in films - his views may have been small-minded and intentionally inflammatory, but surely, he should have been allowed to express them in the first place?


To say this film comes with excess ideological baggage would be a gross understatement. Interestingly though ‘The Sixth of May’ seems to have so much more resonance in relation to the latter statement regarding freedom of speech, as it concerns a journalist’s attempts to unravel the mysterious events surrounding the assassination. Unsurprisingly given Van Gogh’s past as an outspoken member of the popular press, the paparazzi-style journalist character Jim de Booy (Thijs Römer) is cast as the hero of the piece and is the only character without any obvious negative points, apart from maybe his slightly hedonistic lifestyle and unconventional attitude towards parenting: he had a daughter when he was 17 and shares custody of her with her mother. He drinks and smokes constantly throughout the film, although this is probably more in relation to the director’s own famously non-PC fatalistic attitude towards smoking rather than any allusion to the stereotypical hard-living film noir anti-hero figure. With this said though, the film does allude to many of the classical thematic and visual signifiers of the political intrigue, conspiracy thriller, and film noir genres even if its stylistic elements are distinctly modern European. The opening is extremely confusing and becomes more disorientating as it progresses. De Booy is taking photographs of an alluring young TV starlet before a car crashes into his bike and he hears six gunshots. This sequence is cut with footage showing a Turkish woman called Ayse (Tara Elders) leaving her house to meet her older immigrant lover. The connection between these two narrative strands doesn’t become clear until at least an hour into the film when helpful flashbacks reveal her to be an ex-animal rights activist recently released from prison where she was doing time out of blind loyalty for a murder her boyfriend committed years before. Immediately following the assassination however, these disparate characters all try to put the pieces together from constant TV news and radio reports that permeate everything. The omnipotence of the media is something Van Gogh seems to encourage though: being an ex-reporter and columnist himself he is clearly a strong supporter of freedom of speech and the general pervasiveness of the press. Hysteria prevails as people try to pin the blame, but Jim de Booy especially develops a strong interest in the case: his co-workers mock him for being so close to the assassination and carrying a camera as it happened yet capturing nothing. Not only this, but coincidence keeps linking him with some of the main suspects, including Ayse. Just like the similarly themed and structured Watergate classic ‘All the Presidents Men’ (Alan J. Pakula, 1976) the resourceful and hard-living media journalist eventually solves the case, even if it does put him and his daughter’s life in jeopardy. As the film progresses the true enemies are revealed to be the scheming and corrupt state security organisation, a point that is made brilliantly clear when De Booy and Ayse are chased though a busy water park in broad daylight: in classic film noir tradition two characters initially opposed now forced to work together against a bigger enemy. The two escape to some secluded woods and the full nature of Ayse’s manipulation by the state and undercover police are revealed and De Booy, because of his meddling, realises he is now just as dangerously involved as she is.


So far, I’ve mentioned several ways in which ‘The Sixth of May’ shares similarities with well-worn film genres of the past. However aside from explicit plot developments and themes the film alludes to many more basic visual signifiers of the classic crime, conspiracy, and film noir genres: bodies are found dumped in mysterious places, shadowy secret meetings are held between men in suits, chases ensue at least every twenty minutes, hidden camera photos are taken and examined, and smoking is ubiquitous amongst all the characters. While its thematic and visual signifiers are steeped in classical film tradition, the overall directing style is distinctly post-Dogme 95. Jump-cuts leave little time to piece the plot together in the breathless opening hour and the basic lighting creates a moody, realistic ambience. The camera is pretty much hand-held and shaky throughout the entire film apart from the more conventional thriller sequences such as the aforementioned water park chase. This urgent filming style makes what could have been a hackneyed over-detailed plot seem fresh and vital, and I was thoroughly impressed with the way the film switched gradually from disorientating confusion to high tension in a completely naturalistic way. The way in which the characters slowly become integrated is also remarkably impressive, as is the way your loyalties and opinions toward them change throughout, until the crushing truth becomes clear: much like many other films of its ilk, it is the government and the state that are the true villains.


Stylistically the film is impressive, and I became very involved with the multiple levels of intrigue and the at times heart stopping action. However, as I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, any film as steeped in politics as this is bound to provoke other much stronger reactions in viewers and after doing further research, aspects of The Sixth of May started to leave a sour taste. Pim Fortuyn, the political candidate whose death is being explored, took an extremely divisive stance in the run-up to the election that he never saw (it was nine days away at the time of his assassination). Fortuyn, like the idiotic BNP in England, took to exploiting and targeting weak parts of society to score political points, and like the BNP this involved stirring up prejudices regarding immigration and specifically, the Islamic religion. Even before 9/11 this far-right populist was labelling Islam as a threat and “a backwards culture”. His murderer was a militant animal-rights activist called Volkert van der Graaf who claimed to have killed Fortuyn to stop him exploiting Muslims as scapegoats. The character of Ayse, herself a victim of loyalty to her activist friends, is portrayed sympathetically in the film, as is the obvious hero reporter De Booy. However, I was increasingly disturbed by the amount of screen time given to Fortuyn’s far-right rhetoric throughout the film. We see him on TV spouting xenophobic phrases similar to those used by the extreme-right in all European countries, such as “Holland is full”. My suspicions of Van Gogh showing sympathy and maybe even admiration for Fortuyn were confounded as real footage of his funeral procession is shown respectfully underneath the closing credits. It was disturbing to then find out that despite being extremely vocal in his hatred of almost all of Holland’s major politicians, Van Gogh openly admired this controversial and much despised political figure. However, the film is constructed in a way in which his admiration isn’t entirely obvious and so a casual viewer not wishing to delve into modern Dutch politics post-viewing may miss this important factor. Still, the film in itself is an extremely well-constructed and entertaining thriller that expertly uses a fictitious narrative to explore factual happenings, but for me personally my subsequent knowledge of the director’s intentions ruined my enjoyment somewhat. This will forever be the case though with highly politicised filmmaking such as this, but as intelligent discerning film viewers it’s up to us to make our own minds up about whether or not we can enjoy a film for its formal and aesthetic elements alone without being drawn in by its ideologies, however explicit or implicit they may be.



Country: Netherlands
Budget:
Length: 117mins


Filmography:
'JFK’, 1991, Oliver Stone, Warner Bros. Pictures


Pub/2008


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Dayereh (The Circle), 2000, directed by Jafar Panahi
Hopscotch, 1980, directed by Ronald Neame