Picture book by Rotterdam writer wins awards at international festival: “Totally astonished”

Hahn’s book is filmed under the title “De Verreken”. The Deventer murder case is known as one of the most controversial and lengthy criminal cases in the Netherlands. In that report, attorney Ernest Lewis is on trial for the murder of a widow, while the media question whether the Justice Department has the right suspect.

The film won no fewer than six awards at the Seattle American Film Festival. “Wooooow” was Haan’s first response to this news on his Twitter page. For example, Fedja van Huêt, who plays Haan in the movie, won Best Actor and Lies Visschedijk won in the Best Supporting Actress category. Sander Burger’s thriller also won a grand jury prize.

Not just a murder case

Hahn co-edited the film for his book, but completely gave up production. “You’re risking this. Of course it might be a bad movie, but it turns out amazingly great!”

The author of the book did not take into account the high esteem from the United States. “It turns out it’s not just a killing movie, if it can win awards in the US. The power of filming and manipulation (from the media) makes it a valuable movie.”

The Deventer Murder Case was published ten years ago and was much appreciated at the time. Hahn sees everything that is added in the film’s area as a bonus. He enjoys it to the fullest. “The fact that you can win prizes like this is a total surprise. It’s like winning a million dollar prize with a lottery ticket and then receiving another prize later on the same lottery ticket.”

Film release has been postponed

In our country, this movie was not released due to the Corona epidemic. The premiere was scheduled for the start of the year, but has been postponed to April 15th.

Because “Festival World” works a little differently, the film has already won awards. “Such films are usually shown for the first time during a Dutch festival and later internationally. Usually the release date in cinemas follows soon after, but not now because of Corona.”

Of course, Hahn is curious about the film’s route in the Netherlands, but because of this international recognition he is confidently looking forward to April. “Feeling very relaxed, I’m looking forward to this. This is a crazy advertisement.”