Still: Key to Heaven - Digna Sinke

Sinke, often regarded as the grande dame of Dutch film, has built an oeuvre in which landscape, memory and human vulnerability are deeply intertwined. Since the early 1970s, the Dutch landscape has formed the point of departure for many of her films, from industrial zones and agricultural land to places undergoing ecological or social transformation. In her work, geography becomes inseparable from emotional and psychological terrain.

According to Filmpodium Zürich, Key to Heaven** marks a culmination of Sinke’s filmmaking practice. Set against the changing harbour landscape of Amsterdam during the energy transition, the film blends documentary and fiction through the story of an industrial photographer whose fictional journey gradually intertwines with Sinke’s own reflections and experiences. The result is described as “a lucid and poetic masterpiece about holding on and letting go.” 

Produced by Tomtit Film, the film had its world premiere at IFFR 2025. SEE NL spoke to Digna Sinke on the ferry to Eye Filmmuseum about the making of Key to Heaven ahead of the premiere. Watch the video here.

Throughout her career, Sinke has explored how people relate to disappearing worlds, shifting landscapes and the passing of time. Whether portraying residents forced to leave their homes in Wistful Wilderness, reflecting on collecting and preserving objects in Keeping & Saving or How to Live*, or tracing absence and grief in After the Tone, her films remain deeply attentive to the fragile connections between people, places and memory.

Digna Sinke will be present in Zürich on 11 June for the Swiss premiere of Key to Heaven and accompanying screenings as part of the retrospective programme.

Find out more about the programme here.

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*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund
**Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and Production Incentive