On the Track of Robert van Gulik

Name: On the Track of Robert van Gulik
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2016
Duration: 87 min
Cast: Marie-Anne Souloumiac-van Gulik, Arthur Japin, Wilt Idema, Frédéric Lenormand, Henry Wessells

A filmmaker follows a Dutch diplomat-sinologist across three continents and finds that the detective he invented has outlived the man.

Year: 2016
Runtime: 87 min
Countries: Netherlands, Belgium
Languages: English, Dutch, French, Chinese, Japanese
Production: Zeppers Film & TV and Off World
Availability: Library and non-commercial screening licence available

A frame from On the Track of Robert van Gulik

Robert van Gulik (1910–1967) served as a diplomat, collected Chinese lutes and invented Judge Dee, yet his own country barely remembers him. Rob Rombout travels from the Netherlands to Indonesia, Japan, the United States and China, through diaries, archives and the people van Gulik still haunts. Somewhere between biography and detective story, the man and his hero merge.

Note: Runtimes between 70′ and 90′ circulate; a shorter television version probably exists.

Screenings

6 recorded

2016Netherlands Film Festival, UtrechtPremiere

2017Leiden UniversityScreening and talk

2018SOAS, LondonScreening

2019Mois du doc, Heure Exquise!Coup de cœur

2021KVVAK, AmsterdamScreening and Q&A

2026Lieu d'Europe, StrasbourgScreening and talk

“Far from a biopic, more a free-ranging fantasy”
Stephen Jones, 2018

“reality smoothly passes into fiction”
Netherlands Film Festival, 2016

Credits

Direction and script: Rob Rombout
Image: Stef Tijdink, Benjamin Wolf, Stefano Bertacchini, Tareck Raffoul
Editing: Adriana Moreira de Oliveira, Miguel Cipriano dos Reis
Sound design: Rainier Buidin, Guillaume Berg
Production: Frank van den Engel (Zeppers Film & TV), Off World
With: Marie-Anne Souloumiac-van Gulik, Arthur Japin, Wilt Idema, Frédéric Lenormand, Henry Wessells, John Thompson

Elsewhere in the work

PhotographyPORTRAITS / on the roadPeople met on the road, photographed where they live and work, in natural light, after the pose has gone.

Cite this pageRombout, Rob. On the Track of Robert van Gulik. 2016. https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2016-on-the-track-of-robert-van-gulik/. Last verified 10 October 2026.