RTV Rijnmond

At 41 years old, the Quebecois conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has established himself as one of the most gifted maestros of his generation, with numerous prestigious posts with some of the world’s greatest orchestras already under his belt, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (music director), London Philharmonic Orchestra (principal guest conductor), and the Orchestre métropolitain de Montréal. One week before Nézet-Séguin's official nomination as music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008, filmmaker Christiaan van Schermbeek met the maestro for the first time. The once-in-a-lifetime event inspired Schermbeek to begin this documentary project, giving us a fascinating glimpse into the life of a truly extraordinary individual.

THE FREE MARKET tells the story of Rotterdam’s open-air market, the largest in Europe, which is under threat. Right next to it, Europe’s largest covered market is being constructed, the now world-famous Markthal. Surrounded by a rapidly transforming décor and increasingly tense relationships, we experience these changes on the Rotterdam market through the eyes of the merchants whose families have worked there for generations as some see themselves forced to leave. The rapid changes of the Rotterdam market symbolize the inevitable need to adapt in order to survive. But does change and modernization necessarily lead us to a better future?