Video: Amsterdammers send a message to their sick mayor

Filmmaker Cláudio de Oliveira Marques has produced a short film of promises made by Amsterdammers to mayor Eberhard van der Laan, who revealed earlier this year that he is seriously ill with lung cancer.

The film was made by city film maker WeFilm and the entire team gave their services for free. ‘His human and realistic governing should be an example for many other politicians,’ WeFilm say on their website.

In the short film, celebrities, footballers, ordinary Amsterdammers and homeless people make a pledge to the mayor. ‘I promise I won’t come into contact with the police again,’ says one market trader. ‘I promise this city will stay as tolerant as it always has been,’ said a transvestite in bright blue eye shadow.

The mayor was not involved in the making of the film but was made aware that it was being put together. ‘I hope, if he watches it, that he will realise he is loved,’ De Oliveira Marques said. ‘And that perhaps it will give him the energy to remain our mayor for a little while longer.’

Unfortunately, we have been forced to disable comments on this item because of the large number which broke our guidelines.