In Poortugaal, a small village just south of Rotterdam, lives Ans Hoornweg – an 80-year-old spiritual medium with tales as vast as the cosmos. The documentary “Ans and the Universe” offers a captivating portrayal of Ans, who is an incarnated alien from the distant planet of Laborax. This isn’t mere fantasy; interstellar travels and conversations with extraterrestrial entities have defined Ans her life.

Ans has crafted dolls of many of her celestial friends, a tangible memory of her vast intergalactic network. Since the 1980s, Dutch television audiences have been both bemused and intrigued by Ans and her collection of alien companions.

In 2016, she began sharing her message online, with the support of her confidante Merlinde. Through her YouTube channel, she shares otherworldly wisdom and delivers a stern caution about humanity’s reckless treatment of Earth.

Her persistent claim that “the aliens are already here, living peacefully among us” might have garnered admiration within the New Age circles, it also marked her as an outsider amidst her own kind. The documentary “Ans and the Universe” moves between moments of kind-heartedness, melancholy and solitude. It’s an exploration of belief, identity, and the touching spaces in between, a moving narrative of a woman moving between cosmic connections and earthly isolation. Berkveldt captures this duality with a delicate touch while documenting Ans in the last years of her life.

Through their lens, viewers are taken behind the scenes of Ans’ YouTube presence, witnessing her life unfold, where each piece – a personal moment or a broadcast snippet – form a part of her vibrant story. The audience is offered a unique opportunity to journey across alien realms alongside Ans.

Ans’s life, marked by her creation of dolls symbolising her intergalactic network, presents a narrative of resilience and otherworldliness. Despite her challenges and isolation, her positive outlook is a testament to the human spirit. This juxtaposition of the cosmic and the personal is what we sought to capture in our film. Our approach was not merely to document, but to translate her extraterrestrial experiences into a language relatable to the human condition. We created miniature models to visually represent her interstellar travels, weaving these with three years of intimate footage of her daily life.

Inspired by a blend of documentary realism and science fiction, our film explores Ans’s extraordinary perspective. It’s a narrative that transcends the mere concept of alien life, delving into themes of human existence, acceptance, and the urgent need for environmental consciousness. The message is clear: our humanity binds us, and it is in our unity that we find the strength to care for our Earth and each other.

Our hope is that this film resonates emotionally with its audience, conveying a message of gender equality, respect for diversity, and the importance of coexistence. It is not just a story of otherworldly encounters but a reflection of our shared humanity and our choices on this planet.