Dutch director Rademakers dies

Rademakers adapted several classic novels for the screen

Oscar-winning Dutch film director Fons Rademakers has died, aged 86.

He died of emphysema in a Geneva hospital after doctors turned off life-support machines at his request.

Rademakers won an Oscar in 1987 for best foreign-language film with De Aanslag, or The Attack, the high point of career in which he made 11 features.

Based on a novel by Harry Mulisch, it tells the story of a young boy whose family is killed by Germans during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

With Village on the River, his 1958 debut feature, Rademakers became the first Dutch filmmaker to be nominated for an Oscar.

He was also known for Max Havelaar, made in 1976, about corruption during the Dutch colonial period in Indonesia.