The third season of *Tegenlicht* opens with an episode examining the ongoing struggle in Kosovo. In 1999, a ceasefire was brokered by the United Nations between Serbs and Albanians. However, genuine disarmament never occurred, and the confl…

“The Chinese will work harder, run faster, and eventually surpass us… and that is something I do not want,” stated Minister Brinkhorst. Since Deng Xiaoping initiated a gradual introduction of capitalism in the early 1980s, China has been en…

Documentary filmmaker Pieter Fleury secured permission after months of negotiation to film in North Korea. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is typically understood as a pariah state, possessing a clandestine nuclear weapons program…

What accompanies the Bible on the Prime Minister's bedside table? Who inspired the debate on norms and values? In search of the intellectual influence on Jan Peter Balkenende, Tegenlicht discovered in San Francisco the American sociologist …

Tegenlicht produced a documentary focusing on three American soldiers who sustained severe injuries in Iraq. Amputated below the elbows and knees, blind, and profoundly traumatized, they must forge a new existence in a nation increasingly q…

The conflict in Darfur, Sudan, has intensified since the start of the previous year. Over fifty thousand people have perished, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. *Tegenlicht* follows Jan Pronk, the United Nations' special repres…

In December of last year, the Rotterdam City Council proposed a series of measures, dubbed "Rotterdam Zet Door," aimed at better managing the influx of low-income residents to the city. A central concern was the undesirable pull exerted by …

"Fair and Balanced" is the slogan of Fox News Network, one of America’s largest news broadcasters. The network uses this phrase to emphasize its commitment to neutrality. However, the program *Outfoxed* relentlessly punctures the illusion o…

Divorce is increasingly common, yet the harm it inflicts on children appears to be growing more severe, according to family sociologists Spruyt and De Hoog. They highlight the avoidance and resentment stemming from post-separation conflict …

The documentary *MAMMA PLEASE CALL ME* portrays the transnational family life of Emma, a Filipina living in London, and her two children, Hannah (16) and Tsino (7), who reside in Manila. Working alongside her mother as a domestic worker and…

Few ailments now remain untreatable, and for most, a remedy exists. The medical sciences of the last century have achieved a triumph as profound as the Industrial Revolution itself. Yet this progress has fostered a culture where anyone expe…

The question of whether Turkey should join the European Union is currently debated widely, yet the agreement for its membership was explicitly stated in 1963 and again in 1999 and 2002. At most, only conditions remain to be attached to this…

The harrowing film *Sahara Express* follows twenty-five-year-old Jonas and Roland from Benin as they embark on a desperate journey to reach Europe. *Sahara Express* confronts the viewer with unflinching intensity to the hardship the young m…

Ayaan Hirsi Ali returned to her duties in the Dutch Parliament the week of January 18th, bringing with her the renewed and intensified focus on the topic of Muslim extremism. *Tegenlicht* magazine is examining how society confronts this de…

We all have a sense of how the Americans envisioned it: bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq. But what actually transpired? In *Tegenlicht*, a reconstruction unfolds, featuring those central to the story, from the moment Bush declared the…

We all have a sense of how the Americans envisioned it: bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq. But what actually transpired? In *Tegenlicht*, a reconstruction unfolds, featuring key figures from the moment Bush declared the war's end aboar…

What compels those like Osama? What drives individuals to wield the Quran and a weapon, battling our world with the sole justification of Truth? What motivates those willing to sacrifice their lives, convinced it's the only path to saving –…

What compels those like Osama? What drives individuals to wield the Quran in one hand and a weapon in the other, seeking to reshape our world with the sole justification of Truth? What motivates those willing to sacrifice their lives, convi…

Due to the Patriot Act, he is barred from teaching in the United States, and in France, even the question arises whether he should be silenced. Tariq Ramadan, a professor of philosophy born in Switzerland of Egyptian descent and a descendan…

Aging, viewed as a disease, is increasingly met with resistance. Across the globe, anti-aging institutes have emerged in recent years, dedicated to combating the body's natural decline. The aspiration is to grow old with vitality, maintaini…

"Europe: a beautiful idea?" served as the overarching title for a series of international conferences organized by the Nexus Institute during the Netherlands' EU presidency. These events were held in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of…

A year has passed since the Rose Revolution in Georgia, and it is now appropriate to draw a preliminary assessment. Can the young government team, largely educated in the West, led by President Saakashvili, succeed in establishing the forme…

On April 6, 1994, the aircraft carrying Rwandan President Habyarimana was shot down. This event ignited a genocide, in which over eight hundred thousand Tutsi people were brutally murdered by Hutu perpetrators within a matter of months.

The VPRO television program *Tegenlicht* and the Drugs Policy Foundation, a collective of independent experts, are staging a symbolic trial against the Dutch government. The core demand is that the state repeal its prohibition on the produc…

As the Netherlands desperately seeks its roots and foundational values, entire neighborhoods are being demolished and fundamentally restructured. Within a few decades, every tangible trace of how those areas once were will be erased. The ho…

'Tot elkaar veroordeeld' unfolds within the high-security prisons of Israel, facilities dedicated to housing militant Palestinians. The filmmakers were granted unprecedented and exclusive access to the nation's most heavily guarded state pr…

Wen-jie Qin, a program maker from China, received the Tegenlicht New Talent Award six months ago. She secured the prize with an original proposal: to create a documentary about the Dutch integration program, in which she herself is particip…

Iran is determined to be recognized as a nuclear power. However, the most recent meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna reached a different conclusion. What forces are at play now that Iran is excluded from the Nuclear …

The hardships of life under Saddam Hussein were well known. He made his people’s days difficult, and even at home, in the evenings, there was no escape from his presence. For hours, one could watch every action of the great leader on televi…

Libya has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past year, seemingly shedding its image as a pariah state. This shift became evident with Tony Blair's unexpected visit to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in March 2004. Gaddafi reciproca…

"Let us strengthen societal support for care, rather than burdening nursing homes with stricter oversight and painting them as institutions of sorrow and misery," writes Thed van Kempen, director of the Weidesteyn nursing home in Hoogeveen,…

Seventeen years prior, director Nahid Persson had fled Iran. Upon returning to the country a few years ago, she was dismayed by the chaos she witnessed, the pervasive prostitution, and the widespread drug use. Her film, *Tippelen in Teheran…