Ramses Shaffy (1933–2009) was a Dutch actor and singer.
Born near Paris, his Egyptian diplomat father and Polish noble mother separated before he was born and he was adopted by a Dutch family at a young age.
He became popular during the 1960s and made a theatre comeback from alcoholism in the early 1990s, playing Don Quichotte in the musical The Man of la Mancha.
His most famous songs include Zing, vecht, huil, bid, lach, werk en bewonder (Sing, fight, cry, pray, laugh, work and admire), We zullen doorgaan (We will go on), and Laat me (Leave me be).
His website describes Shaffy as ‘a Dutch-Franco-Polish-Russian-Egyptian mixture of Tom Waits and Frank Sinatra’.
One day, fifteen-year-old Emma wants to be an artist too, like her idol Ramses Shaffy. This documentary portrait shows how for the time being she is condemned to a life at school with bullying classmates. Emma dreams of blowing them and their fault-finding families away with her music. But to do so, she will need the guts to form a band and jump onto the stage. To muster courage, she roams around Amsterdam in Shaffy's footsteps and gives vent to her feelings in ardent songs. Just wait…
King Olaf of Haland is an albino who lives in a gloomy castle. Abraham Mogèn, an alchemist, wants to aid the king. But on his way to the castle he is murdered by the highwayman Wogram and his servant Onorg. Wogram disguises himself as the alchemist and wins the favor of the king.
Young Barend is worried about the safety of the sailing vessel he is on. The owner is an unscrupulous and stingy man who skimps on repairs and Barend becomes aware of this. Inevitably there is drama and tragedy. The film is set in an early 20th century Dutch fishing village with local period costume and colour.
All Rebels paints a picture of the young people who congregated around Amsterdam’s Leidseplein square in the days before wider protest movements broke out in the late ’60s and the ’70s. They kicked against the powers that be through wild parties, jazz music, unconventional clothing, long hair, smoking marihuana, uninhibited dancing and free love.
Author Frank's debut novel is successful, but he needs the proceeds to pay off a debt and his girlfriend Mascha ends their relationship. He meets another woman, but he and Mascha also seem to make amends. These amorous vicissitudes give him inspiration for a new book, which will deal with eroticism in the Netherlands.
Kamiel steals the famous Brussels statue of Manneken Pis to impress his girlfriend Denise, the daughter of the man who is supposed to guard it. The Belgians, however, wrongly accuse the Dutch of having stolen their statue and hit back by stealing the statue of Hansje Brink.