The Taste of Desire

Amsterdambased Willemiek Kluijfhout (1971) has directed several highly acclaimed documentaries and award winning fctionshorts that have been shown on television and at various international flm festivals. She is both a graduate of the Dutch Film Academy and earned a masters in the philosophy of Art and Culture. ‘Ball Possession’, for example, won two nominations at the New York City Short Film Festival. ‘Mussels in Love’ was Willemiek’s frst featurelength flm, which competed at the Canon Cinematography Award at the Planet + Doc festival in Warsaw, Poland (May 2013) and was the opening flm of the Culinary Cinema at The International Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale 2013) Her latest feature length documentary ‘Sergio Herman, Fucking Perfect’, premiered at the Berlinale 2015. The flm is about Master chef Sergio Herman who closes down his 3Michelinstarred restaurant Oud Sluis; a compelling story about perfection, ambition and sacrifces. Ten days after its release in The Netherlands it received a ‘Crystal Film Award’ and it received the special mention as best director at the Seattle International Film Festival. As a producer Willemiek was involved in the Golden Palm nominated short flm ‘Missing’ by Jochem the Vries (CANNES 2009) She was an advisor for the Netherlands Filmfund for documentaries from 2004 – 2008. Since 2010 also lectures at the Audiovisual Design Department at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. With her new flm ‘The Taste of Desire’, which is produced by HALAL docs, she won the Best Pitch Award at the Leipzig DOK Festival.