The Shepherd

Nico van Hasselt (90) has been active as a general practitioner in the neighborhood of ‘Buitenveldert’ in Amsterdam ever since he moved there in 1956. He is a committed doctor who truly cares for his patients and makes more then ten house calls per day. After his morning coffee the doctor sprints eagerly to his car and drives towards his first patient of the day.

Since 1989 van Hasselt has been in a heated legal conflict with the medical insurance company Agis. Agis has been trying to shut him down. Insurance companies pressure the medical sector to standardize it and make it more efficient. Van Hasselt believes the criticism he receives is based solely on the fact that he does not want to abide by the regulations applied by the insurance companies. Insurance companies take away tasks, prescribe the length of a consult and dictate guidelines for treatments and medication. To van Hasselt this is a bridge to far. Medicine to him is not just a system; it’s taking care of each other. But as he gets older and the influence of the insurance companies grows larger, the question remains how long van Hasselt can continue his role as ‘shepherd’ of the community.

Joost van der Wiel graduated from his study Audiovisual design in 2006 with the Sint Lucas Graduation award. He then studied Audiovisual design at the Willem de Kooning academy in Rotterdam. In 2010 he won the Dutch Film Fund Documentary Wildcard, the WDKA Drempel award and the Maaskant award.

The Shepherd won Best Short Documentary Film at the All True Intl. Documentary Film Festival in Brazil. In Poland at the Gdańsk DocFilm Festival, it won Special Mention and in Italy at the Working Title Film Festival, it won Best Short Film. The film was also awarded Best Documentary Shortfall at the Labor International Film Festival.