Discoveries from Netherlands World Cinema

Children's music from Dirk Scheele and friends

Jean-Pierre Bauwens Junior is a 23-year-old youth world champion in the lightweight category of boxing, with a very special family. He is the oldest of seven siblings, four of whom suffer from autism. Junior doesn't just fight for pride or glory; he is fighting for a better future for his poor family. By boxing his way to the top, he wants to buy them a bigger house. But then tragedy strikes: Junior's autistic brother kills his father by accident. This film shows the tough clash between a loving family and the cold reality.

In this frenzied tale about passionate affairs, vicious cycles and fresh blood, a disillusioned older woman is trying to hide her true nature from the young girl she is dating.

The Year is 2012. Bin Laden is a political refugee in Brussels. Somehow, helped by the criminal underworld he becomes President of Europe. Europe, the new dictatorship, is an awful place of high security and closed borders . When the Afterman hears about the upcoming revolution, he returns from Russia to his fatherland. He accidentally joins a group of Lesbian freedom fighters.

A veiled Indian lady talks to the camera (silent). Her story is told in images.

The Red Stuff: The True Story of the Russian Race for Space is a film about the first heroes of the cosmos from those early years of Russian space travel. Who were the people behind these first successes? Unique archival material reveals the bravery and the unsurpassed stamina of the cosmonauts. What is true and what is false in our view of Russian space exploration? How do those involved look back on their work and their enforced role in the Soviet political machine? Now that the military secrecy and national propaganda of the Soviet Union has crumbled, see the real story of the other side of the space race.

Registration of the ninth theatre program by the Dutch singer and performer André Manuel. In his ninth theater performance 'Lazarus', death and resurrection are a common thread. Manuel gives his unvarnished opinion on all kinds of current affairs, and everyone gets it down: Christians, Jews, Muslims, women and men. But through the grossness you can taste Manuel's great social commitment: he holds up a mirror to the audience and shows us the pitch-black side of reality.

Stage registration of the second comedy special by the Dutch comedian Micha Wertheim. This performance takes place in a dream, a dream in which Micha Wertheim shares all kinds of confessions, for example about how he manages to cope with the knowledge that he is probably not a real genius.

Although set in the southern Netherlands and Belgium, the story draws from murders that began in Moscow Oblast, Russia, in 2014. Fedorov, a young man of Russian descent orphaned and raised by his uncle, graduated from a technical university near The Hague but, afflicted by worsening somatic symptoms, failed to secure work. Returning to Russia under sanctions seemed impossible. He wandered the streets, smoking cannabis and throwing stones at drunks. Within this self-made prison he met Helena, a Flemish girl, on an online forum. She lured him into smuggling soap and chemicals to the black market in Liège. The next month he met Helena and two female accomplices at Liège-Guillemins Station. Yet at their suburban hideout—an abandoned factory—he was forced into his first murder and dismemberment. Only then did he realise he had entered their abyss of crime, irrevocably damned. Where will their fates turn in the next manipulative, large-scale ensemble sequence?

The film follows Alice's psychosis and surreal journey, critical of simple solutions to mental health problems. Inspired by homeless and youth care in The Hague.

When Mila and Anna, a couple, pay a visit to Anna’s parents, the Polish Mila realises she does not feel at home in the Netherlands. But how do you bring this up? Graduation film Kocham Cię addresses a linguistic and cultural barrier, and the obstacles you have to overcome. Once back home, Mila and Anna grow closer again by playing music. A phone call with a Polish friend and some piano playing incite Mila to finally speak out and say how she feels about the relationship, the communication and her migration to the Netherlands.

Blender Studio’s 15th Open Movie: An uptight engineer gets an unwelcome visit from a enthusiastic wannabe-pilot, causing both of them to be launched into the air inside an out-of-control space shuttle.

Visionary director Jacques Bonzou has challenged himself to make a new film with limited resources. Will he succeed?

A man is released from jail and meets a young woman in a bar.

A young man is a bit drunk and decides by way of a joke to rob the local gas station to scare a girl who tends the station whom he fancies. Things take a bad turn and he's arrested for real. Nobody seems to believe he was only kidding.

A man ridicules his wife's fascination with masculinity, but she's dead serious...

Due to excessive rainfall, the Land van Maas en Waal is threatened with flooding. Whereas all villagers have been evacuated, stoic old Jacoba refuses to vacate her little house on the dyke. Filled with a longing for death, she sits and waits for the dykes to give way. She kills time by listening to the radio alerts, by reading the Bible and by praying to God to hurry up. Until she is disturbed by the arrival of her 12-year-old granddaughter Fleur, who foils her plan. Gradually, the film unravels the reason for the old woman's peculiar behaviour, at the bottom of which lie indigestable past events. Despite attempts to get rid of Fleur, the unyielding girl is determined not to abandon her grandma. The confrontation with her grandchild forces the elderly lady to reconsider her intention.

A collection of ghost stories from the women of the Chinese diaspora. These stories reveal localized beliefs in signs and metaphors through the macro- and micro-narratives of vernacular experiences.

A powerful documentary about the forgotten uprising on Texel in April 1945, when Georgian soldiers rose up against their German commanders. Young people from the island speak with eyewitnesses and, through archival footage and personal stories, bring to life the final battle of the Second World War in the Netherlands.

In her first-ever special, Dutch stand-up comedian and internet sensation Lovella Telesford doesn't mince her words. From impossible love to the curse and blessing of motherhood, and from hysterical schoolyard scenes to washing your chicken, Lovella knows how to address sensitive topics in a humorous way, creating a connection with her audience. Her humor is raw, but above all, relatable to her large fan base, whom she calls her family. A funny family show full of relatability and a new way of looking at your own family.

When teenage girls, who are being chased and searching for a place to hide at school, find shelter in the gym, they finally feel safe. But not safer than the girl who they have tied up and keep hostage.

A look at Louis Van Gaal's eight year playing career for Sparta Rotterdam.

A sausage dog becomes a bridge and lets all kinds of animals walk over him. Chickens, a rabbit, sheep, cows, mice, a horse and apes. A cat sees a business opportunity. An elephant, a duck and a bear are also involved somewhere.

After the death of her husband Ivan, writer Marion Bloem must rebuild her life. While painting, she processes her pain and grief, as she has not yet found the words to put her emotions on paper. Later, the poems come, and after a long inner process, she writes a book. A film about love, loss, and the transformative power of creativity.

A couple of times a year, the sky turns red in France. Sand dust from the Sahara is passed through a difference in air pressure from North Africa to Southern Europe. This dust, a time capsule containing cesium-137 from the French nuclear tests in Algeria, covers everything. The film exposes the impact of a war that was never fought. A French veteran and archeology students share and speculate on what will be remembered and what will be hidden under the sand forever.

A musical arthouse coming of age film of approximately 20 minutes and is about the emotional development of Johnny, who, because he denies his emotions and feelings and runs away from confrontation, becomes increasingly disconnected from reality. When his simulated carefreeness is disrupted, he must go on a surreal quest through his own psyche to regain his lover and his grip on himself.

Portrait of the American experimental filmmaker Tom Chomont, who resided in Eruope from 1969-1975, before returning to New York.

Relive the magical spectacle of Our Story. Celebrating 20 years of Tomorrowland through The Symphony Of Unity. The Orchestra that captivates the essence of unity, dance and music. Originating from the holy grounds of Tomorrowland. Bringing the magical score curated by Tomorrowland, created together with the most amazing Tomorrowland artists. Crafting an unforgettable experience that unites us all. Score curated by Tomorrowland, arranged and produced by Marcel Kaper and Hugo Tromp. Orchestrated by Kevin Houben, brought to life by The Symphony Of Unity.

The animal experience of New Year's Eve fireworks is loud and clear, even without commentary. The increasing anxiety among animals as seen through the eyes of dogs sporting GoPro cameras.

Members of the Genetic Choir Ensemble use careful reciprocal listening and improvisation techniques to connect with nursing home residents who have lost their ability to communicate conventionally. In a series of delicate scenes, the singers share their ideas and put their methods into practice, filling these once sad and silent spaces with a gentle comforting hubbub of hums, murmurs and intermingling voices. Through this intimate approach, the smallest of gestures – a flicker of a smile, a moment of eye contact – carry profound meaning.

Flow invites you to surrender to the whims of the wind on a seemingly ordinary day, concealing within its turbulence a captivating night in the life of a woman, portrayed through the dance of air currents. The interplay of scents, warmth, respiration, and both natural and artificial gusts of wind, influenced by invisible forces, renders the imperceptible tangible. These atmospheric movements unveil a sequence of events inviting us to follow the woman on her meanderings, plunging us into a realm crafted entirely from air. However, as the storm subsides and the woman awakens from what transpires to have been a dream, her world is no longer the same.

19-year-old Elise is about to be baptized when her church community finds out that she is in a relationship with Noa, a girl from the same church community. Elise is unintentionally faced with a choice: choosing between her faith or love.

After Russia started a fully-fledged war against Ukraine, the state's repressive machine against its own civil society started spinning with even greater velocity and the law system, which barely functioned before, eventually turned into a mechanism of abuse and brutality.

‘Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone’ is an uncanny composition of familiar settings; transporting you from dusty attics to ornate wedding venues and beyond. By animating vacant spaces, Hjermind turns backgrounds into main characters. The video questions how architectural structures can have personalities and how interiors might demand a certain behaviour. It brings to mind both surveillance footage and landscape paintings. The viewer is invited to linger in liminal space, while experiencing the hierarchy between spectator, space and screen slowly dissolving. Who is watching whom?

They were expecting a nice hotel, but instead arrived at the barracks of WW II transit camp Westerbork in 1950. After gaining independence in 1949, Indonesian Dutchmen had the choice: become Indonesian or remain Dutch and leave for Holland. Along with two Dutch-Indonesian families, including her mother, filmmaker Monique Verhoeckx revisits the former transit camp.

a man with a moped and groups of boys (one in particular) are in conflict, which sometimes turns into erotic play.

An advertising film where posters are presented about the festival held on 9 July at the stadium in Amsterdam.

Footage of a water festival on Amsterdams's Amstel River. Both recreational as well as competition rowers take part in the popular festival, which attracts thousands of visitors.

This film follows roughly a thousand children from The Hague ('s-Gravenhage) on their annual outing to Soesterberg, Netherlands.

Eline Jongsma’s great-grandfather was known as “Crazy Gerrit.” This was a rather innocent nickname considering who he actually was: the ruthless, violent mayor of the town of Krommenie, Netherlands, during the Second World War, and a fanatical member of the NSB—the Dutch Nazi party. After the war ended, his children disowned him out of shame, and his great-granddaughter grew up unaware of his existence. But no secret can stay buried forever.

What happens when you leave home on a bike with no other plan than to ride eastwards? Embarking on just such an adventure, Martijn Doolaard decided to cycle from Amsterdam to Singapore. One Year on a Bike chronicles his slow travels over 17,000 km—passing through the wilds of Eastern Europe, the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, and the temples of Myanmar. Stories of animal encounters, camping at salt lakes and on deserted beaches, and Iranian hospitality are accompanied by photography that captures the breathtaking scenery, the chance meetings and friendships, and the buzz of global cities. This movie and book details the beauty and self-discoveries, as well as the hardships and the gear necessary, on this incredible one-man journey.