Jannes

In 1982, Jannes van der Wal became world checkers champion at the age of 24. This propelled him to fame in the Netherlands, appearing in a wide range of television programmes, where he invariably played the clown. According to his Dutch checkers colleagues, who are introduced extensively in the film, he was a genius. Nevertheless, many people considered him an odd madman, who led a non-conformist and shabby life. In Jannes, director Rein Hazewinkel makes an attempt at rehabilitating Van der Wal by revealing his extraordinary personality. Van der Wal’s greatest tragedy was that he realised that playing checkers was a futile occupation, but that he really could not think of anything else to do. Stock footage of TV appearances - such as the famed interview with Mies Bouwman - are alternated with interview excerpts and replayed checkers matches. Sounds and images run straight through one another, resulting in a kaleidoscopic and captivating portrait of this Frisian man, who died of leukaemia in 1996. With his script for this film, Rein Hazewinkel won the 1997 IDFA scenario workshop, which was led by Dutch filmmaker Rudolf van den Berg. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)