>>> GEORGE SLUIZER
Dutch producer-director George Sluizer was born in Paris, where he attended later the Paris Filmschool IDHEC .
His first film was as assistant director on Mike Todd's AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, which was followed by a.o FANFARE (Bert Haanstra).
During the sixties to early eighties, he produced and directed many documentaries and TV-specials. Between 1972 and 1983 he made 3 documentaries about two Palestinian families who had fled to Lebanon in 1948, focussing on the children who had to grow up in warlike situations: LAND OF THE FATHERS (1974-75), A REASON TO GO (1977) and ADIOS BEIRUT (l983).
He also worked as producer on numerous feature films including Werner Herzog's FITZCARRALDO.
As writer/director Sluizer's credits include JOAO AND THE KNIFE, TWICE A WOMAN, RED DESERT PENITENTIARY. In 1988 he attracted international attention with his feature film SPOORLOOS. Adapted from Tim Krabbé's novel The Golden Egg, the film won him many Film Awards and it was the dutch entry for the 1989 Academy Awards.
In recent years, Sluizer directed an adaptation of Bruce Chatwin's novel UTZ, starring Armin Mueller-Stahl, Brenda Fricker and Paul Scofield. 20th Century Fox's remake of SPOORLOOS - THE VANISHING - starring Jeff Bridges, Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock and 1993's DARK BLOOD starring River Phoenix. In 1995 Sluizer directed CRIMETIME, a disturbing thriller about the dangerous effects of reality-TV, the nostalgic comedy DYING TO GO HOME, THE COMMISSIONER about the murderous chemical trade, THE STONERAFT, a magic-realist fable based on the novel by Nobel Prize writer Jose Saramago.
Throughout his career Sluizer has directed films in six different languages and thinks of himself as a truly European director. A master of the thriller genre, Sluizer is known for his unique signature, his "going to the edge"and "search for one's limits".
"My strength as a filmmaker lies in my beliefs and convictions. Filmmaking for me is a combination of my personal vision with what I think the audience wants to see. Finally, I only provide the groundstones, the audience has to put the story together, reinvent it according to their moods and feelings.
