Black-and-white portrait of Robert van Gulik, with round glasses and a moustache, in a light shirt, against a dark background — ▶ Trailer · 1′40″

201687 minDocumentary

On the Track of Robert van Gulik

Name: On the Track of Robert van Gulik
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2016
Duration: 87 min
Cast: Marie-Anne Souloumiac-van Gulik, Arthur Japin, Wilt Idema, Frédéric Lenormand, Henry Wessells

Robert van Gulik (1910–1967) served as a diplomat, collected Chinese lutes and invented Judge Dee, yet his own country barely remembers him. Rob Rombout travels from the Netherlands to Indonesia, Japan, the United States and China, through diaries, archives and the people van Gulik still haunts. Somewhere between biography and detective story, the man and his hero merge.

More excerpts

Press

“Far from a biopic, more a free-ranging fantasy”

Stephen Jones, 2018

“reality smoothly passes into fiction”

Netherlands Film Festival, 2016

2022On the Track of Robert van GulikManuel João Montenegro, Cinemateca Portuguesa · PDF ↗
2022A composite portraitMarc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation · PDF ↗

Photographs

A cameraman with the camera on dolly rails on the paved top of the Pingyao city wall, in grey haze — 2013China, Pingyao, the city wall

Guido Tielman, in a dark coat and a camel scarf, beside the camera and a sound recordist in headphones on a riverbank in Chongqing — 2013China, Chongqing, Guido Tielman

On the river shore in Chongqing a cameraman kneels behind the tripod while Guido Tielman stands looking at the towers in the haze across the water — 2013China, Chongqing, Guido Tielman

A phone showing a white balance reading is held up in front of Paul Lee’s face before a shot in New York — 2013USA, New York, Paul Lee

Paul Lee, in a hat and a striped scarf, smiles in a New York street at night while Benjamin Wolf films him — 2013USA, New York, Paul Lee. Camera: Benjamin Wolf

Portrait of Yunbi Fu, an elderly woman in a red and gold brocade jacket, against a dark background — 2013China, Shanghai, Yunbi Fu

Zhu Xiao Di, in a dark coat and tie, holds a pole in a metro carriage in Boston — 2013USA, Boston, Zhu Xiao Di

2013Japan, Hirado, Yoshihiro Kida

Portrait of Arthur Japin, lit from one side, against a black background — 2014Netherlands, Amsterdam, Arthur Japin

Nine people sit side by side on a sofa in a Shanghai flat, Yunbi Fu in red at the centre with the film crew, collaborators and family, cups on the low table in front — 2013China, Shanghai, Yunbi Fu with the film crew, collaborators and family

Technical sheet

Title: On the Track of Robert van Gulik
Year: 2016
Runtime: 87 min
Countries: Belgium, Netherlands
Languages: English, Dutch, French, Chinese, Japanese
Production: Off World, co-produced with Zeppers Film & TV
Availability: Library and non-commercial screening licence available
Versions: 87′ in the credits published in Mélon 2022. Some programmes list 2015 (completion) or 88′. A Dutch version exists (Mélon 2022, p. 239).

Direction and script: Rob Rombout
Image: Stef Tijdink, Benjamin Wolf, Stefano Bertacchini, Tareck Raffoul
Editing: Adriana Moreira de Oliveira, Miguel Cipriano dos Reis
Sound design: Rainier Buidin, Guillaume Berg
With: Marie-Anne Souloumiac-van Gulik, Arthur Japin, Wilt Idema, Frédéric Lenormand, Henry Wessells, John Thompson

Selections

2016Netherlands Film Festival, Utrecht
2019Mois du doc, Heure Exquise!