After dropping out of law school at the
University of Amsterdam, Van Gogh became a
stage manager. His self-proclaimed passion was filmmaking, and he made his debut as a director with the movie
Luger (1981). He was awarded a
Gouden Kalf for
Blind Date (1996) and
In het belang van de staat ("In the Interest of the State", 1997). For the latter, he also received a "Certificate of Merit" from the
San Francisco International Film Festival. As an actor, he appeared in the film,
De noorderlingen ("The Northerners", 1992). He made numerous films (see below), many on political themes. From the 1990s, Van Gogh also worked in television. His last book (2003) was
Allah weet het beter ("
Allah Knows Best"), in which he strongly condemned
Islam. He was a well-known critic of Islam, particularly after the
Iranian Revolution and the
September 11 attacks. He supported the nomination of writer
Ayaan Hirsi Ali for the
Dutch parliament, who was elected. Born in
Somalia, she had immigrated to the Netherlands to escape an arranged marriage. She became a writer and
socialist (former PvdA
Labour Party) politician. In the 1980s, Van Gogh became a newspaper columnist. Through the years he used his columns to express his frustration with politicians, actors, film directors, writers and other people he considered to be part of "the establishment". He delighted in provocation and became a controversial figure, frequently criticising Islamic cultures. He used his website,
De Gezonde Roker ("The Healthy Smoker"), to express harsh
criticism of multicultural society. He said the Netherlands was so rife with social turmoil that it was in danger of turning into "something
Belfast-like".
Submission Working from a script written by
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Van Gogh created the 10-minute short film
Submission. The movie deals with
violence against women in Islamic societies; it tells the stories of four abused Muslim women. The title,
Submission, is a translation of the word "
Islam" into English. In the film, women's naked bodies, with texts from the
Qur'an written on them in henna, in an allusion to traditional wedding rituals in some cultures, are veiled with semi-transparent shrouds as the women kneel in prayer, telling their stories as if they are speaking to Allah. In August 2004, after the movie's broadcast on Dutch public TV, the newspaper
De Volkskrant reported that the journalist Francisco van Jole had accused
Hirsi Ali and Van Gogh of plagiarism, saying that they had appropriated the ideas of Iranian-American video artist
Shirin Neshat, whose work used Arabic text projected onto bodies. Following the broadcast, both Van Gogh and Hirsi Ali received
death threats. Van Gogh did not take the threats seriously and refused any protection. According to
Hirsi Ali, he said, "Nobody kills the
village idiot", a term he frequently used about himself. == Personal life ==