George Sluizer

George Sluizer was a French-born Dutch filmmaker whose credits included features as well as documentary films.

Career

Sluizer was born on 25 June 1932 in Paris, France. He was best known for directing two versions of The Vanishing, a 1988 Dutch-language release, originally titled Spoorloos, and the 1993 American version. Other feature films directed by Sluizer included Utz for producer John Goldschmidt, Crimetime, and Dark Blood, which was discontinued after the death of its lead actor River Phoenix, but later completed and premiered at the Netherlands Film Festival in 2012.
From 2012 until 2014 he was part of the film jury for ShortCutz Amsterdam.
Director Dennis Alink made a documentary called Sluizer Speaks during the final years of Sluizer's life. It premiered two months after his death at the International Documentary [Film Festival Amsterdam|IDFA] in Amsterdam.

Sluizer claimed that he had witnessed then-Israeli Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon, personally shooting two Palestinian children from close range near the Sabra-Shatilla refugee camp in November 1982, after the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Sluizer was accused by Israeli officials of a 'modern blood libel' for his claims – which in 2010 achieved front page level publicity in Israel.

Sluizer suffered from arterial disease in his later life, and in 2007 experienced a near-fatal aortic dissection. Sluizer died in Amsterdam on 20 September 2014, aged 82, after suffering a "long illness."