Using previously unpublished interviews, family films and propaganda films, THE PROPAGANDIST tells the story of the rise and fall of Dutch filmmaker Jan Teunissen (1898-1975). As head of the Department of Film of the Dutch Nazi Party and SS, he became the most powerful man in the Dutch film industry during World War II. 

Teunissen, nicknamed the ‘Film King’ and the ‘Dutch Leni Riefenstahl’ was a well-known filmmaker before the war. What drove him to become part of the Nazi regime? 

THE PROPAGANDIST questions the boundaries between documentary and propaganda and the role of propagandists –  how they spread images, narratives, misinformation and ideology. A documentary about boundless ambition and the manipulative power of film.