Discoveries from Netherlands World Cinema

Direct report of the arrival of Sinterklaas, this year in municipality Vijfheerenlanden.

At the opening of a new shelter for Ukrainian refugees in the Dutch city of Weesp, documentary makers Petra Lataster-Czisch and Peter Lataster join the procession of household goods, suitcases, staff members and new tenants. The camera looks on affectionately as children run around whooping with delight, rooms are furnished and the reality of a new way of life takes shape. The central meeting point is a large kitchen with a gleaming stovetop and numbered sections in the fridge for each room.

Tells the true story of hitchhiking hooker Lee Wuornos who killed seven of her johns on the Florida highways in 1991. She is portrayed by Barbie, the world-famous doll who epitomizes all that little girls are supposed to be (sugar and spice). But then appearances can be deceptive...

A young woman lives in the streets of a city where people are watched by cameras 24 hours a day. Even in her sleep she is followed. Is it possible to find a place where you can be yourself in a disquieting world of constant surveillance?

Selena (14) is the only girl on a boys' team. Her teammates see her as one of the boys. The arrival of a new girl begins to change the dynamics within the group. Selena does everything she can to protect her position within the group.Selena (14) is the only girl on a boys' team. Her teammates see her as one of the boys. The arrival of a new girl begins to change the dynamics within the group. Selena does everything she can to protect her position within the group.

When night falls and everybody goes to sleep, the kitchen floor is home of the mice. In this comical short for all ages a little mouse has a musical encounter with the scared human inhabitants of his kitchen. This film is made in a traditional cartoon style but is drawn on computer, giving it a unique look.

Deeply moving documentary about a group of Dutch army veterans with PTSD, who found a shelter at The Home Base. Honest and vulnerable, they talk about their demons and their struggle to connect with society. Beautifully serene, Marjoleine Boonstra captures their intense experience.

An unfiltered portrait of adolescence with a blind internet sensation.

The dreamy and gentle adolescent Kamal (14) works, just like his older self-assured brother Hatim (15), as a boy prostitute around Rotterdam Central Station. When Kamal accidentally falls in love with a male client and openly expresses his homosexuality, the situation seems to escalate and blackmail seems to have taken hold of the brothers. Will they win the fight to escape this oppressive world of boy prostitution?

Six fanfare flute players explore the landscape of the uniform. A journey that does not go unscathed.

A behind-the-scenes documentary charting the creative rise and development of Studio Rosto A.D and Thee Wreckers through their art, music and films.

A multi-narrative drama set in a typical southern Dutch village that prepares for the holidays. It turns out the compulsory conviviality can’t drown out the everyday problems of some of the inhabitants: troubles at the town council, the silent struggle of a lonely grandmother, and a bullied teenager.

A film poem in which the words, spoken by an actor, do not refer to concrete objects or "reveal their meaning" but function like notes in a musical score.

A young woman struggling with daily life starts to wonder how her laid-back boyfriend gets to be so damn okay with everything.

TV registration of the second theatre program by the Dutch comedian Claudia de Breij. A show about the Original Sin.

Jacko has to stay with his strange and forgetful grandfather. He warns Jacko that there is a vampire at his school who bites children: Varlok. Jacko doesn’t believe it - until his best friend Edje suddenly starts behaving very strangely and joins the ever-growing group of bullies at school who all wear sunglasses: The Sunglasses Gang.

A feeder is getting bored with his current project.

When the mayor promises housing for everyone and the polls open in this animation, the hounded doves are quick to act. With an election result that would delight the Partij for the Animals.

Count De Grancé have two degenerate children. For the adolescent daughter there is still some hope, as her main vice appears to be that she devours the novels of Emile Zola. The son leads a dissolute life in gambling dens, where he cheats at cards, and in night-clubs he associates with dancers. [As of 2024, it appears only a 12-minute fragment of the film survives, at EYE Filmmuseum.]

An incomplete word that we never hear is reduced to a single phoneme by echoes and stutters in digital cut-ups. The voice is not subordinated to any rational order, avoiding an adaptation to semantic content or syntactic structures. The digital sounds metaphorically blur distinctions between what is heard as natural or artificial and reference the dynamism and ephemerality of environments and forms of life. An amorphous figure appears timidly in a familiar background. We cannot predict its movements or what is going to become. We cannot decode its gender, age, nationality, or mood. It doesn’t follow any law, it’s just there to exist.

Once inside this big fish, abandon hope, as all the devil's phantoms feast on ones soul

Photos and film footage are edited, damaged, scratched, and painted. The original images are only vaguely recognizable, as if they are already part of our ‘tainted’ memory. The film was made in response to the death of Janis Joplin.

There's an ancient myth that the light in Holland is different from anywhere else, but it has never been put to the test. It's the legendary light we see in paintings.

Film about the life of former Prime Minister Willem Drees, commissioned by the central government. In an interview, Drees talks about his life, with the period when he was Prime Minister naturally being the main focus. The interview is supported by visual material that provides a picture of the era and makes Drees's monologue somewhat more vivid.

“Waterlanders” is Simone van Dusseldorp’s 1994 graduation film from the Netherlands Film and Television Academy. It depicts two sisters coping with their parents’ death and constructing their own reality in an attempt to regain a sense of agency. While the sisters share an unbreakable bond, the older sister’s growing curiosity about the outside world strains their relationship as the younger sister resists these newfound changes.

A young woman awakens in a stranger’s bed, her mind blank, unable to piece together how she arrived or who this man is.

A person who becomes self-aware by examining their hearing and observing light and shadow.

Through a series of family snapshots, we are introduced to a family. The accompanying captions comment on everyday scenes featuring uncles, aunts and in-laws.

A lonely street musician meets a young soldier who has just deserted.

Short funny animation about a irritating spider and a man who is reading the newspaper. He catches the spider and flushes her through the toilet. But the big arms from the spider comes out of the toilet, catches the man and pulls him also through the toilet

In the early eighties, the tough trucker Harm married the shy, country girl Siepie. Thirty years later Harm tells her that he wants to become a woman. That is difficult to hear for Siepie. Not only because she will lose her husband, but also because she is afraid of gossip in their small, Frisian village. Yet she gives Harm the space to openly live as Harriette.

Walking in the forest without being able to see, coming down the stairs or going shopping when one is paralysed, falling asleep with post-traumatic stress disorder: for the protagonists of Buddy, all of this is made possible by the presence of an assistance dog at their side. Edith, 86 years old and blind since adolescence, remembers all of the dogs she has had with her, and their portraits—even if she cannot see them—cover the walls of her house.

A documentary about the sex lives of elderly couples

Polygoon film from the late 1940s, with an impression of the activities in and around the AVRO radio studios in Hilversum. Beautiful footage of the technician giving a signal to the newsreader so he can read the news. Or relaying the correct time. Important for people who have to go to work or school.

Set in the early 1940s, a young Ukrainian woman is taken into custody because her statements about freedom are considered dangerous by a repressive system. Inspired by true events.

A vacated, cluttered bedroom fills slowly with water. The bed is already under water and, due to the motion of the waves, seems to breathe gently. A strange kind of calm exists, as if it is all a dream. Minne Kersten (1993) filmed her video work in a replica bedroom at an institute that researches water as part of flood preparedness. The flooded room elicits visions of disasters and water's destructive power. It is a distressing image in light of current climate developments, especially in a city such as Amsterdam, which lies below sea level. Kersten is fascinated by the feelings of serenity and calm that can arise in the midst of a crisis. In moments of actual need and loss, a person may experience a heightened sense of clarity. They may take a step back and observe as time passes by. This can allow space to think about the end as a transitional state, rather than something definitive. Transcend the future!

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

Documentary following the life of comedian/influencer Jay Francis

In 2014, the Tempters launched an attack on the monetary system and banks. The result? Sold-out venues, shocked visitors, and an investigation by the Scientific Council for Government Policy. Has anything changed since then? Absolutely. It's only gotten worse!

Stage registration of the third theatreprogram by Dutch musical comedian Hans Dorrestijn and composer Martin van Dijk. A show about growing old.

"Looking for Horses" is a film about a friendship between the filmmaker and a fisherman, who lost his hearing during the Bosnian civil war and retreated to a lake to live in solitude. The filmmaker, son of Bosnian parents, struggles to communicate as he lost his mother-tongue due to a heavy stutter. Despite their speech and hearing limitations, a bond develops between the young man and the veteran, as he shares his world of the lake: full of large catfish, wild horses, wide silences, and dangerous thunderstorms. Where for the fisherman the lake stands for a withdrawal from a fractured country, a land of war; for the filmmaker it precisely means the return to that broken place, the land of his parents. They look for ways to communicate, while the camera mediates their growing bond. Taking the shape of a gentle western, "Looking for Horses" is a poetic documentary on trauma, survival, and connection.

When I filmed a mad dog at an industrial terrain I was surprised to see the dog run off as soon as I pointed the camera towards it. I wasn’t sure if the dog became scared because it was surprised that this big eye that was pointed at it did not express any fear, or that it was the dog’s own image, reflected in the camera lens, that scared it. However it may be; the dog got scared and ran away. This made me realize that maybe it also works like that internally. If you face your fears in a calm and quiet state of mind, you may drive them off or even serve as a mirror to them.

A wise man once said 'if it does not fit, you have to push a little harder, then it often fits!' Another wise man once said 'every year deserves a New Year's Eve performance, and I'm going to make that performance !!' You understand, the latter wise man was Dolf Jansen, widely recognized as record holder for New Year's Eve performances of the Netherlands forever. Has he achieved something in his life ... In 2011, Dolf played his own performance and in between still the New Year's Eve, in close cooperation with Pauw & Witteman. In 2012, Dolf will play in specially selected theaters ... .. (roffel) ... New Year's Eve 2012 Exclamation Mark. Passed through the finished year, finished and boned within ninety minutes and sometimes at high (!) Pace. From Elfstedentoch-not to the fall of the cabinet, and if not then surely all other great events. And Nick and Simon, of course. With a lot of jokes. And shreds of poetry. So wise is it then again ...!