Rob Rombout
ENFRNLPT
A man smoking, seen through the window of a compartment door
Nord-Express1990 Paris – Moskva via Berlin, Warszawa, Brest, Minsk. 47 hours.
1 / 8 Open the film

Elsewhere, everything becomes more conscious.

Rob Rombout, in Les Plats Pays, 2025

Dutch filmmaker and photographer, born in Amsterdam in 1953, based in Brussels since 1975 and in Lisbon. Films since 1978, portraits made on the road, and teaching since 1988.

Departures

Films 1990–2016, in order of release

1990Nord-ExpressParis, Berlin, Brest, Moscow59 min1992Transatlantique, Queen Elizabeth 2Southampton, the Atlantic, New York57 min1994L'Île noireAn oil rig in the North Sea52 min1998Amsterdam via AmsterdamAmsterdam, Amsterdamøya, Île Amsterdam80 min1999Perm-missionPerm, in the Urals52 min2000Le Piège de KerguelenThe Kerguelen Islands40 min2001Canton la ChinoiseGuangzhou52 min2002Les Passagers de l'AlsaceStrasbourg and the Alsace line52 min2004Queen Mary 2, naissance d'une légendeSaint-Nazaire, the Atlantic72 min2012Amsterdam Stories USAFifteen towns called Amsterdam4 × 90 minTwo Dutchmen speak French to each other on screen. In Dutch, Rob says, it would have run twelve hours.2016On the Track of Robert van GulikLeiden, Jakarta, Tokyo, Guangzhou87 min

Showing 11 of 21 films. 2 more are in progress.

See all films

Four programmes, ready to travel

Each programme is a route through the films, with screeners for your committee and Rob in person for the talk.

Closed worlds

4 films, 220 min
  1. 1990Nord-Express
  2. 1992Transatlantique, Queen Elizabeth 2
  3. 1994L'Île noire
  4. 2002Les Passagers de l'Alsace

A night train, a liner, a rig and a regional line: strangers sharing a space they cannot leave.

Amsterdam ×2

2 films, 440 min
  1. 1998Amsterdam via Amsterdam
  2. 2012Amsterdam Stories USA

Following a name around the world: two islands called Amsterdam, then fifteen American towns.

Islands

4 films, 212 min
  1. 1994L'Île noire
  2. 1995Les Açores de Madredeus
  3. 1998Amsterdam via Amsterdam
  4. 2000Le Piège de Kerguelen

The Azores, Kerguelen, Spitsbergen and a steel island in the North Sea.

East and West

2 films, 139 min
  1. 2001Canton la Chinoise
  2. 2016On the Track of Robert van Gulik

Robert van Gulik’s China and a Guangzhou seen through glass, with a masterclass.

The staged real

A documentary is built, not found. Rob writes first, scouts for a long time and explains his method to everyone before the camera turns. Then he films, so that reality can still surprise him.

“How to predict the unpredictable?”

Rob Rombout, notes for a masterclass on writing and directing

Clapperboard: scene Noël, take 12, director Rombout
Scene Noël, take 12. Pas de cadeau pour Noël, Liège, 1986.
A man in sunglasses points to the hands of a large station clock
Les Passagers de l’Alsace, 2002.
La corde à lingeThe clothesline
La dentelleThe lace
L’étoileThe star
La constellationThe constellation

Four ways of building a film, as Marc-Emmanuel Mélon reads them in La mise en scène du réel (Yellow Now, 2022). The book is being translated into English, Portuguese and Chinese.

Sound first. Then the image.

At the Beijing Film Academy, students told Rob that a film is 80 percent image and 20 percent sound. He answered that he uses the same percentages, the other way around.

In his workshop, students record and edit the sound of a place before they may film it. Rob developed the exercise within DocNomads.

Listen first. The image stays hidden until you ask for it.

Sound before image

A workshop of one to three days for film students and young makers.

In English, French or Dutch

The staged real

A lecture with film excerpts, or a seminar on writing and directing documentary.

Built on Mélon’s book

Portraits on the road

A photography masterclass with no talk of lenses. One question: what do you want to tell?

Given in Bredevoort, 2025

The same light for everyone.

Portraits made on film shoots, scouting trips and ordinary roads. A novelist and a waitress get the same light, and the same time. He waits until the pose is gone.

Portrait of an elderly woman in a patterned silk jacket against a dark wall Portrait of a man with a curled moustache and a camouflage cap, half in shadow
PORTRAITS / on the road, pages 30 and 31Yellow Now, 2024. Foreword by Joost de Vries
Rob Rombout standing on a gravel road with a camera, hay bales and snowy mountains behind him
Rob Rombout on the road. The cover photograph of PORTRAITS / on the road.

A man of departures, with two home ports.

Rob has filmed trains, liners, rigs and islands: places everyone leaves. He has lived in Brussels since 1975 and taught there from 1988 to 2018. Lisbon is the second port.

  1. 1953AmsterdamBorn there, raised in Zaandam.
  2. 1975BrusselsFilm school, then a home port for fifty years.
  3. 1990–2016ElsewhereMoscow, the Atlantic, Kerguelen, Guangzhou, fifteen Amsterdams.
  4. NowLisbonTeaching, and a second home.

Now

Last shown

24 April 2026 – 3 May 2026

On the Road – in Bredevoort

Koppelkerk, Bredevoort

No new dates yet: invite Rob for a screening, a show or a masterclass.

All dates

BredevoortKoppelkerk
A man sitting in a small shelter beside a frozen pond, under bare trees
On the Road – in Bredevoort, 2026.

Work with Rob

Programme a retrospective

Four ready programmes or your own selection. Screeners, technical sheets and Rob for the Q&A.

Plan a programme

Book a masterclass

Sound before image, the staged real, or portraits on the road. One evening to three days.

Book a masterclass

Exhibit the photographs

Two series and two books, with a hanging plan for your rooms.

Ask about an exhibition

Write about the work

Facts with their sources, press images, how to cite, and access to the archive.

Open the press room