They say misery loves company, but for Dutch director Matthijs van Heijningen misery also loves comedy. Failure, he says, is funny. Yet rather than presenting pitiful characters, van Heijningen breathes a genuine humanity into his work. Coupled with an unwavering dedication to narrative, that translates into good comedy.

"My stories are always about people who go from A to B, and they normally fail," says the 37-year-old Amsterdam-based director. Aware of the perversity of his position, he immediately offers: "Everyone messes up. The Kevin Costner kind of hero is boring. But if we see someone who tries hard and fails, perhaps we see something similar in ourselves."

In "Robbery", for insurance company Central Beheer, a meek police officer stops to chat with a pretty flower salesgirl during his daily rounds. Interrupted by an urgent call to catch a group of bank robbers, policeman Pierre jumps into action. He commandeers a car and joins the pursuit - only the endearingly muddled officer has grabbed the thieves' car and inadvertently let them go.

Van Heijningen attributes this predilection for empathetic tragi-comedy to the Northern European sensibility. Dutch humor, he says, is rife with self-irony. Which is why he feels at home working in both the Netherlands and the UK. "Every Englishman takes the piss out of himself and does it with a big smile." For the moment, he prefers English commercials: "They're more my style. American commercials are funny, but they miss a bit of the irony."

He's currently examining the relationship between hardships and guffaws in Overhead Eye, a feature film based on the true story of a man who uses his wealth to lure lower-class women into his porn ring.

The movie is a return to his roots for van Heijningen, who has worked for the past five years as a commercial director. The son of a prolific Dutch features producer, he grew up on film sets and by the time he was 18 had worked on four movies. Persuaded by his father to get a proper job, he studied law, but quickly returned to film. In 1993 he founded an independent production company, Ijswater, which produced obscure short films.

Realizing that commercials would provide him with a regular income and experience, van Heijningen moved into the ad world. "I thought it would just be a temporary thing, but I really started to enjoy it." In 1998 he landed at Czar Films where he met producer Saskia Kok, and a year later the duo founded Bonkers.

As a commercial director, van Heijningen says he focuses on storytelling. In fact, he's uncomfortable in situations where a straight narrative is absent. Yet, even in such endeavors, van Heijningen has enjoyed success. Net Aid's "If the World Was 100 People" won a Silver Lion at Cannes (he also won top honors for Delta Lloyd Bank "Parade"), but employed two of his least favorite elements - effects and voiceovers. The nature of the project and the humanitarian cause persuaded him to do it.