Daan's Inheritance

"Even though he's dead, he can't escape this confrontation." Daan van der Elsken has decided the time has finally come to get to know his father, the famous Dutch photographer and filmmaker Ed van der Elsken, who died in 1990. Daan wants to take charge of his life by getting to know himself better. He hopes to find out to what extent his rebelliousness, selfishness and ambition are an inheritance from his father, who didn't know the meaning of the word enough and with whom Daan frequently clashed. Daan's good friend, director Joris Postema, follows him on this quest. He portrays Daan struggling with himself and with depression, and captures Daan's evolving notion of who his father was. In some respects, Daan realizes that he does resemble his dad – a man who was forever directing everyone around him while he filmed and photographed them, as we see in wonderful archive footage. Meanwhile, Daan himself often interferes with Postema's direction, severely testing the limits of their friendship. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)