TV review Dorian ‘Jesus’ Bindels stepped into his stuffed cloud and sang one last Jaap Reesema cover on a stopover

By the time you read this, Dorian Bindels is in heaven. Or perhaps he is still on his way – Wendy van Dijk only told that Jesus had left for his final destination by cloud; She made no statements about the precise distance that had to be made or the number of kilometers per hour that the cloud in question could make. But at least Jesus’ Ascension Day had started on Thursday, and since Bindels was Jesus this year, the musical actor will now have risen far above us.

The Passion: Ascension (KRO-NCRV) gets compared to The Passion Not very much media attention. As a rule, the original is better than the sequel (and the book Better than the Filming). But in the case of The Passion Is it really important to look at that continuation: otherwise you will not get how binding is unfinished business completes on earth after he died on Good Friday for us all on the cross. You also miss how Richard Groenendijk, also known as Pontius Pilatus, shouts in his phone: « The grave of Jézus is Léég?! » And that is just a shame, just to stay in biblical terms.

Bindels did not intend to spend much time on earth. Just like the Jesuses who in Him The Passion He had also gone in the superhuman Aura to go between average mortals for too long. Moreover, I can imagine that once you have been tortured and crucified and got up from the dead, you then think: we will not do this again. Time to get into my stuffed cloud. But Bindels would not be Bindels if he did not first make a stopover at his disciples to sing a last Jaap Reesema cover with them.

He had estimated that they needed such a conclusion. « We all hit the bottom once, » said storyteller Van Dijk when Bindels had stepped into the white light. « It is not the question when, but rather how often. And how do you find the power to continue? Peter, Mary, Thomas and Mary Magdalene – they all had to get up in their own way. About their doubts, fear and sorrow, they gave up. She gave Jesus the hope and courage for that. »

On a root trip

Unfortunately, such a musical Deus ex Machina does not often occur outside it Passion-universe. It can be hard work to overcome fears, doubts and losses, and there is no guarantee that it will work. In The Chinese collection: Thuisbezorgd (Omroep Zwart) Waals program maker Kelly-Qian van Binsbergen, who was adopted by a Dutch couple from China as a toddler, an attempt. It is not the first time that she delves into the theme of adoption: already appeared in 2023 The Chinese take -awayin which she interviewed her own adoptive vein and examined the Dutch adoption system. And this sequel is also an exception to the rule, because it is at least as revealing and creative as the first part.

This time Van Binsbergen goes on a root trip to China in the hope of finding out more about her own adoption and, in the best scenario, to find her biological family. Images of that search are interspersed with conversations with other adopters, with therapists and lawyers who assist them and more stakeholders. It is always felt how the adults who were brought to the Netherlands at a young age continue to struggle with emotions and questions that were not seen and heard for a long time. Who are still insufficiently seen and heard. Van Binsbergen now focuses on those stories and finds particularly many adopted people willing to openly tell about (among other things) sexual abuse, attachment problems and difficulty finding and embracing your identity.

Because how do you get to know yourself if you do not have information that seems to be very obvious to others? Van Binsbergen’s adoption file is not in order, which makes the search for her roots even more difficult. Even there is doubt about her birthday. And she is not the only one in that. In the last episode, for example, she follows Dilani Butink, who was adopted unlawfully from Sri Lanka and cannot find out who her biological parents are due to abuses and mistakes in her file. In 2018, she complained both the state and the adoption agency and won on appeal, but the state did not accept that. It went in cassation, so that the case still drags itself. This makes it very difficult to overcome your feelings of loss – from your biological family, your own history.

That must be possible. Van Binsbergen closed the last episode of The Chinese collection: Thuisbezorgd Thursday with a call to Prime Minister Schoof. « You can start something new with today’s knowledge, » she said. « Close the old book. Open a new chapter – for recovery. » Amen.

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