26.000 gezichten (regie john appel)

26.000 GEZICHTEN is a TV project that seeks to give a face to asylum seekers who have exhausted appeals to stay in the Netherlands and will have to return to their countries of origin within three years. It is an initiative by a group of more than 70 documentary and fiction directors aspiring to broadcast short cinematic portraits and focus primarily on the people who applied for asylum under the "old" refugee law, and who have lived in the Netherlands for more than five years. The films range in length from one to five minutes, around 250 of them are made each year, and they will be broadcast over the course of three years, corresponding to the term set by the Minister of Foreigners' Affairs and Integration to implement all deportations.IDFA screens seventeen of these films, directed by people like Heddy Honigmann, Danniel Danniel and John Appel. These filmmakers have given completely different interpretations of the issue at hand: one might be a poignant portrait, whereas another uses the media hype of Idols to get its point across. The 26.000 GEZICHTEN project considers it essential to follow the policy of a democratically elected government intently and insist on maximum humanity time and again.