Face Value

An ingenious study of the importance of the face in man’s social life, shot in the Netherlands, Germany and other European cities, in a time period between the fall of communism in Europe and the outbreak of the Gulf War. The desire to show off and, conversely, the fear of being exposed, not being able to see yourself completely and the curiosity to discover the other through seeing, in a documentary the Dutch director chose to shoot because “everything revolves around faces and the act of looking”, as he said. The active verbs see-look and the classic themes that run through van der Keuken’s work, like the eternal battle in order to discover one’s identity and the endless anguish for love and death, in a film with a deeply piercing gaze.

Director: Johan van der Keuken

Screenwriter: Johan van der Keuken

DoP: Johan van der Keuken

Editor: Jan Dop Johan van der Keuken

Country: France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands

Year: 1991

Running Time: 120'

Language: Dutch