Dennis Lubbers

Director Eché Janga graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy in 2010 with his graduation film MO, which immediately won several prizes. After directing various short films Eché directed his debut feature HELIUM in 2014 which premiered in competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and won two national film awards (Golden Calves) for Best Camera and Best Music. BULADÓ is Eché’s second feature film as a director.

Director's statement
“As a filmmaker, I am aiming to show the elusive, something that allows people’s differences to disappear; be it love, mysticism or an existential dilemma. In BULADÓ, this elusive comes to the forefront in the form of mysticism. In Afro-Caribbean culture mysticism is still more present than in the Western culture. Since I am a descendant of both, I play with this contrast in BULADÓ. The story was derived from an old slave saga that was passed on in my family for generations, finally ending up with me. By bringing this story to the big screen, I hope to open eyes to the beauty and power of the underexposed stories of our Dutch colonial history. The Antillean culture is mainly an oral culture. The indigenous people (Caquetios) as well as the enslaved and their owners are the basis of this culture. Weljo’s story did not come into being just out of the blue. On the island there is a mountain around which a legend has emerged. The slaves who had fled the salt mines and had not eaten the salt of the mines could fly from there back to Africa, to their freedom. Close to this mountain are caves where part of the indigenous population lived that helped to free the enslaved from their chains. They could jump off the mountain at night and the wind would take them back to the land from which they had been stolen. These places really do exist and the tales from this history have developed in various ways. One of my relatives knows almost all of them. Freedom is a recurring theme in these stories. It is special for me to be able to process one of these stories in a film and to contribute in this way to Antillean culture. It is a special feeling to have brought this story that I have been carrying with me for fourteen years on screen. Although I consider myself an agnostic, mysticism - especially in nature - plays an important role in my life. Just like Kenza, I have doubts and occasionally tangle between rationality and spirituality. Despite my indecisiveness, this contradiction also makes life exciting and adventurous to me. Ultimately, what we’re not sure about is, what I believe to be, the most interesting in life.”