LAGONDA

a film by Robin van Erven Dorens

Scenario and direction: Robin van Erven Dorens
Camera: Onno van der Wal
Sound: Ludo Keeris
Editing: Barbara Hin
Original music by: Ernst Glerum
Line producer: Sylvia Baan
Producer: Pieter van Huystee
Commissioning editor NPS: Cees van Ede
Premiere IDFA 2003

In 1938 the Dutch architect Jan van Erven Dorens (1904-1994) bought the most beautiful automobile then available, a Lagonda LG6 Drop Head Coupé. During the Second World War he managed to keep the Lagonda out of the hands of the Germans, but immediately after the liberation the car was confiscated by Prince Bernhard´s staff. Soon afterwards the Lagonda turned up again when war hero Montgomery had himself driven around in it so the citizens of Amsterdam could hail and cheer him. After that day Van Erven Dorens never set eyes on his car again.

Sixty-five years after the event, his grandson Robin van Erven Dorens went on a search for his granddad's confiscated vehicle. Many stories turned out to be doing the rounds about the vanished Lagonda, bringing back to life a world long gone by: the world of an adventurer in upper-class circles, an architect who allowed himself to be led by his imagination in times when decisions of vital importance had to be made. But the main point remained: Where did the Lagonda end up? Based on unusual archive material and private film fragments from the thirties onwards the documentary LAGONDA presents a portrait of an extraordinary twentieth-century life as the reconstructed story of a car and its rightful owner unfolds.

Robin van Erven Dorens (1964) won de IDFA Scenario Prize in 2002 with the script for LAGONDA. This film is his first documentary.



Pieter van Huystee Film
Noordermarkt 37-39 - 1015 NA Amsterdam - t +31 20 421 0606 / f +31 20638 6255
www.pvhfilm.nl / festival handling Matthijs Koenen matthijs@pvhfilm.nl