George Sluizer | |
---|---|
Born |
Paris, France |
25 June 1932
Died | 20 September 2014 Amsterdam, Netherlands |
(aged 82)
Cause of death | Cardiovascular disease |
Nationality | Dutch |
Occupation | Film director · Film producer · Screenwriter · Film editor · Author |
Years active | 1961–2014 |
Notable work |
The Vanishing Utz Dark Blood |
Home town | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
George Sluizer (25 June 1932 – 20 September 2014) was a Dutch filmmaker whose credits included features as well as documentary films.
He was best known for directing two versions of The Vanishing, a 1988 Dutch-language release, originally titled Spoorloos, and the 1993 American version. Other feature films directed by Sluizer included Utz (1992) for producer John Goldschmidt, Crimetime (1995), and Dark Blood, which was discontinued after the death of its lead actor River Phoenix, but later completed and premiered at the Netherlands Film Festival in 2012. The film was shown two more times publicly on 2 October 2012 at the same festival.
Director Dennis Alink made a documentary called Sluizer Speaks during the final years of Sluizer's life. It premiered two months after his death at the IDFA in Amsterdam.
Sluizer was accused by Israeli officials of a 'modern blood libel' for his claims - which in 2010 finally achieved front page level publicity in Israel - that he had witnessed the then Defense Minister Ariel Sharon personally shooting two Palestinian children from close range near the Sabra-Shatilla refugee camp in 1982.