City of Light

The short documentary by Dutch journalist Peter Veenendaal is about the old De Bijenkorf department store in Rotterdam. This masterpiece of modern architecture, designed by the famous Dutch architect Willem Marinus Dudok, opened in 1930 and has since undergone a turbulent history. Initially hailed as the biggest and most modern department store in Europe, it was largely destroyed during the German bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940. In the mid Fifties, the remaining part was closed, demolished and forgotten. In this film, original footage, pictures and eyewitness accounts bring Dudok’s masterpiece back to life.