Back to Akbar Street'

Back to Akbarstraat' is a diptych by Gülsah Dogan in which Felix Rottenberg returns to Akbarstraat 20 years later. In 2002 he made a documentary series in which he sketched a forgotten black neighbourhood with a failing administration and full of mutual tensions between population groups.

Terug naar de Akbarstraat will be broadcasted on 22 and 23 January, 22.15 on NPO2. On 21 January, the documentary will be discussed by De Wereld Draait Door.

The neighbourhood that was once known as 'the worst neighbourhood in the Netherlands' (Vogelaar district number 1) is largely unrecognisable, due to the immense Urban Renewal that has taken place over the past decade. Many social housing units were demolished and largely replaced by owner-occupied and luxury rental properties. What effect did this have on the neighbourhood feeling, the composition of the population and the mutual tensions? How are the children who were filmed in 2002 doing now? And is the picture that Rottenberg painted of the problems in the neighbourhood correct, given what we know now?

Back to the Akbarstraat is a co-production of De Familie Film & TV and NTR. Realised with the support of CoBO, Fonds 21, Gemeente Amsterdam and the Van Eesteren-Fluck & Van Lohuizen Foundation. Impact is made possible by VSBfonds, Stichting DOEN, Impact Makers and IZI Solutions.