Dutch film maker George Sluizer dies at 82

In Amsterdam, internationally recognized Dutch film director and producer George Sluizer has passed away at 82 years of age. The film maker has been sick for some time, his condition brittle after only narrowly surviving a ruptured artery in 2007. Sluizer hit it big with his 1988 film Spoorloos, the film adaptation of Tim Krabbé's book The Golden Egg, which received international acclaim. America beckoned Sluizer to direct a remake of the film, which hit theaters in 1993 under the name The Vanishing. Sluizer's next film Dark Blood hit a tragic roadblock when River Phoenix suddenly died from an overdose in 1993. Sluizer decides to put his Hollywood career on hold for some time. Sluizer's first film was the short De Lage landen (The Low Lands) in 1961. For this, the director won a prize at the Berlinale. His first feature length film, João En Het Mes (João And The Knife) was released in 1972. After some success in America and several Spanish language projects, Sluizer released the film The Chosen One in 2007. This year, Sluizer suffers an artery rupture. Despite his condition, Sluizer remained in the film world and gets back to work to finally finalize Dark Blood. "I probably don't have much longer to live, so I want to complete the film, that suddenly became urgent", he said in an interview. Filling the 20 percent left in the movie with stills of previously captured film and a personal explanation, the film premiered at the Film Festival in Utrecht in 2012. Sluizer is also busy with documentaries. Since 1974, he has been working on four documentaries about two Palestinian families who are exiled from their homes and cannot go back. The final part, Homeland, appeared in 2010. Up until his death, George Sluizer has been continuously busy with various film projects, his wife tells the NOS.