JANNES

Director: Rein Hazewinkel
Production company: Pieter van Huystee Film & TV
Camera: Stijn van Santen
Sound: Sander den Broeder
Editor: Sander Vos
Production manager: Ruben Harry
Première: IDFA, 25th of November 1999
Length: 55 minutes
Broadcasting company: NPS


JANNES: a documentary about Jannes van der Wal. Jannes van der Wal chose to become a professional draughts player. Nobody can make a living in this profession. JANNES is therefore a film about persistence, passion for a game, about seeking truth, the point of life and finding a destination.


Since draughts player Jannes van der Wal was twelve years old, he was convinced that he would become the world champion in draughts. Nobody took him seriously, but that didn't upset him, "because", as he commented later on, "at least I knew what I had to do here on earth: make sure that I would become the world champion".
Jannes's dream came true and a lot sooner than expected. In December 1982 he won the world title in Sao Paulo. He was 24 at that time and he received a lot of attention in the media. But what seemed to be the ultimate dream, turned out to be a nightmare: "Because every time I keep on wanting to take it higher up", he told TV hostess Mies Bouwman. "Of course there are a lot of other things to do besides playing draughts, but I don't know what is a good idea and what isn't." So he continued to play draughts. He played in simultaneous draughts competitions and led an orderly life. He spent his evenings with the hard core of the mind game players from Groningen.

The game continued to fascinate him, but one thing troubled him: more and more games tended to end in a draw. To breathe new life into professional draughts, he considered it necessary to change the game. It took a long time for him to find a solution: the 'continued draughts game'. But Jannes became ill and he was unable to attend the first Continued draughts match. He died in 1996.

Jannes, who practically didn't have two half pennies to rub together as a draughts player, appeared in every television show that paid him a sum of money. Due to his performances, he was increasingly portrayed as a clown. Wrongly, as the film JANNES shows us. Rein Hazewinkel, who won the prize for best script at the International Documentary Filmfestival in Amsterdam with this filmscript, portrays Jannes as a very original and colourful person who at the same time found it hard to settle down.