Petra Lataster-Czisch

You Are My Friend

Follow the vivacious six-year-old Branche, who has recently arrived in the Netherlands from Macedonia with his parents. Branche goes to school for the first time, but he doesn’t speak the language and doesn’t know anybody. Finding a friend isn’t all that easy.

The Mole Agent

When a daughter becomes concerned about her mother's well-being in a retirement home, private investigator Romulo hires Sergio, an 83-year-old man who becomes a new resident—and a mole inside the home, who struggles to balance his assignment with becoming increasingly involved in the lives of several residents.

Miss Kiet's Children

Kiet Engels is the kind of teacher one wishes every schoolchild could have. She is strict but never harsh. She is loving but never soft. Her patience in endless. Miss Kiet’s pupils have only just arrived in Holland. Many are refugees. Everything is new and confusing. Some at first are quarrelsome and headstrong. But Miss Kiet’s firm but loving hand brings calm and awakens interest. She not only teaches her pupils to read and write Dutch, but also helps them learn to solve problems together and respect one another. Slowly the children gain skills and confidence.

Awake in a Bad Dream

One in eight Dutch women gets breast cancer, which means that most people know someone who struggles with this life-threatening disease. The part of a woman's body where she is probably the most vulnerable, beautiful, proud and sexy becomes a source of despair and rage. For Ingrid, Vicky and Sabrina, breast cancer takes on various forms. They are working towards recovery through tough and painful treatment, but are acutely aware that the disease can rear its ugly head again without warning. They feel damaged and insecure, and their self-esteem is at stake, for the disease has eroded their sense of femininity. In a very personal and intimate way, Awake in a Bad Dream shows how the women and their partners try to regain control of their lives after the diagnosis. Without comment or interviews, the film follows Ingrid, Vicky and Sabrina as they face inevitable and painful choices at the hospital.

Awake in a Bad Dream

One in eight Dutch women gets breast cancer, which means that most people know someone who struggles with this life-threatening disease. The part of a woman's body where she is probably the most vulnerable, beautiful, proud and sexy becomes a source of despair and rage. For Ingrid, Vicky and Sabrina, breast cancer takes on various forms. They are working towards recovery through tough and painful treatment, but are acutely aware that the disease can rear its ugly head again without warning. They feel damaged and insecure, and their self-esteem is at stake, for the disease has eroded their sense of femininity. In a very personal and intimate way, Awake in a Bad Dream shows how the women and their partners try to regain control of their lives after the diagnosis. Without comment or interviews, the film follows Ingrid, Vicky and Sabrina as they face inevitable and painful choices at the hospital.

Jeroen Jeroen

The 15-year-old intellectually disabled Jeroen lives with his mother. During the day he is in a shelter. He spends the weekend with his father. Because of his autistic disorder, Jeroen is very sensitive to stimuli and he always needs care and guidance. Directors Peter Lataster and Petra Lataster-Czisch follow the life of the adolescent, his mother Anita and his regular companion Kevin for four months. They are filmed close to the skin and without comment they show how Jeroen systematically tests his surroundings.

If We Knew

If We Knew is a documentary about paediatricians in an intensive-care unit for newborns. A film about the compassion needed to heal the sick and occasionally needed to hasten the death of a child.

All Is Well

At the opening of a new shelter for Ukrainian refugees in the Dutch city of Weesp, documentary makers Petra Lataster-Czisch and Peter Lataster join the procession of household goods, suitcases, staff members and new tenants. The camera looks on affectionately as children run around whooping with delight, rooms are furnished and the reality of a new way of life takes shape. The central meeting point is a large kitchen with a gleaming stovetop and numbered sections in the fridge for each room.

Journey Through Our World

Working out using bottles as weights, talking to good friends on Zoom and after an hour deciding whether to request a new link. Suddenly noticing those two crows in the garden. Covid shrank the world of documentary-making couple Petra and Peter Lataster, so they pointed the camera at themselves, the nature in the garden, and their neighbors.

Niet zonder jou

Portrait of the filmmaker's parents (in law), whose deteriorating health in old age is slowly separating them.

Salah, an African toubab?

Not every African wants to go to Europe! Every African wants to go to Europe is the common public opinion in Europe. The young and energetic will rise to the opportunity of finding a better life in Europe or the US, as if they have nothing to lose. But there are young people who choose differently. People who want all the benefits of a steady and fulfilling professional life, on the condition that they can achieve this at home. People who love their native country and who realize that happiness is not an easy commodity in a foreign land. Salah Salahina Sounfountera, living in Mali, is such a man. He lives in Mali and he has decided to stay.

Revolt in Sobibor

Revolt in Sobibor is a beautifully filmed portrait of four survivors of the uprising in the Sobibór extermination camp in Eastern Poland, close to the Russian border.

The Arctic Is Calling

This children's adventure movie is a charming tale of a group of youngsters in Prague who hear that Soviet sailors abandoned their failing ship in the Arctic Sea before it went down, but no one had been able to find the sailors yet. Inspired by the efforts to save the men, the youngsters strike out on their own to help in the rescue attempt.