The Body Collector wins Best Narrative Audience Award at Denver Jewish Film Festival 2018
The Body Collector won the Best Narrative Audience Award at Denver Jewish Film Festival 2018. The festival has a history of showcasing Jewish and Israeli perspectives of the human experience though cinema. Festival director Amy Weiner: “We are so grateful we had the opportunity to program The Body Collector as part of our lineup”.
The Body Collector tells the story of how Hans Knoop – editor-in-chief of weekly magazine Accent, affiliated to big Dutch newspaper de Telegraaf – becomes personally involved in the hunt for war criminal Pieter Menten, who has escaped justice. For years, Pieter Menten has lived quietly in a huge villa in het Gooi when he decides to sell part of his art collection. De Telegraaf interviews him about this, as an art collector. This interview comes to the attention of Israeli journalist Chaviv Kanaan through Dutch correspondent Dr. Henriëtte Boas. Kanaan accuses Menten of the execution of Jews – including many members of his own family – in the Polish villages Podhorodce and Uricz. Through Boas, Kanaan contacts Knoop and tells him that in 1943 Menten had three train carriages of stolen art brought to the Netherlands – and the Menten Case is born. Knoop decides to follow the story to the bitter end, but Menten won’t give up without a fight.