Slain Dutch director's film launched

The Hague
December 14, 2004

A drama film about the killing of maverick Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn directed by the outspoken filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was himself murdered last month, has been launched amid heavy security.

The film, a mix of dramatisation and real footage called 06/05 - the date on which Mr Fortuyn was shot by an animal rights activist in 2002 - is to make its premiere tomorrow on the internet and will screen in cinemas from January.

It was launched on Sunday at a venue cordoned off by police near the parliament building in The Hague. "Unfortunately it's not just a good memorial for Fortuyn but also for Theo," said actress Tara Elders, who plays a lead role in the film that suggests government intelligence agents were involved in Mr Fortuyn's killing as he opposed a major defence contract.

Van Gogh, who outraged Muslims with a film this year accusing Islam of promoting violence against women, had just finished making 06/05 when he was shot and stabbed to death as he cycled to work in Amsterdam on November 2.

His murder sparked a fierce debate about freedom of speech and fuelled rising hostility towards immigrants, which Mr Fortuyn had tapped into with comments that the Netherlands could not absorb any more foreigners.

"The killing was a smart bomb for free speech," 06/05 producer Gijs van de Westelaken said at the launch.

"More so even than the killing of Fortuyn because he was a politician. It means that everyone who wants to give his opinion is hesitant."

A Dutch-Moroccan man with suspected links to a radical Muslim group has been charged with van Gogh's murder. Others in the group have been arrested for threatening politicians, including Geert Wilders, a right-wing populist seen as an heir to Mr Fortuyn's anti-immigration legacy.

Mr Wilders, whose support has soared in polls since van Gogh's death, has said concern for his own safety and those of his employees is hampering his attempts to set up a new party.

Mr Fortuyn, mourned by tens of thousands who lined the streets to shower his hearse with flowers, was recently voted the greatest Dutchman of all time in a television competition.

- Reuters