'My Sweet Child': Filmmaker Reconstructs the Life of the Mother He Lost in the MH17 Disaster
Dutch-Iranian filmmaker Maarten de Schutter created the documentary "My Sweet Child" about his mother, AIDS activist and feminist anthropologist Martine de Schutter, who was killed in the downing of MH17 in 2014. The film premiered in Kyiv and is nominated for a Golden Calf at the Netherlands Film Festival.
When Dutch-Iranian filmmaker Maarten de Schutter opened boxes of family photographs and VHS tapes that had sat untouched for years, he initially had no intention of making a film. What began as an attempt to preserve his family archive became "My Sweet Child," a documentary reconstructing the life of his mother, Dutch AIDS activist and feminist anthropologist Martine de Schutter. Martine de Schutter was killed in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, when Maarten was 15. All 298 people on board died, including 196 Dutch citizens. International investigators concluded that MH17 was downed by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile launched from territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
For nearly a decade afterward, Maarten rarely spoke about his mother or the disaster. Then he delved into family photos, home videos, and his mother's deeply personal diaries. Over a year and a half, he assembled the film, which moves beyond the geopolitical dimensions to tell an intimate story of the bond between mother and son. The film premiered in Kyiv before being nominated for a Golden Calf at the Netherlands Film Festival.
In an interview with The Moscow Times, de Schutter said the process was intuitive. He started by digitizing the tapes without knowing what was on them. Watching them, he began making small creative sketches that eventually formed the entire documentary. “I wanted my mom's life to exist in this work,” he said.
His mother worked in AIDS prevention in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, leading a project that provided HIV/AIDS medication to marginalized groups. In 2013, when President Vladimir Putin visited the Netherlands, she joined a large protest against his visit.
The hardest part for de Schutter was finishing the film, as it felt like giving up on the attempt to bring his mother back to life. He hopes viewers will feel the love and loss, and reflect on how large events like war impact individual lives.
