Discoveries from Netherlands World Cinema

A group of young and spoiled rich kids turn into vampires after a night out, changing the course of their lives and driving a wedge between them all.

After serving his sentence for a sex crime, Nanne's son Arnout returns home to the farm in Friesland. Consumed by a poisonous cocktail of grief, hatred, biting self-reproach and against the backdrop of the coercive mores of a conservative Frisian rural community, Nanne tries to regain his compassion for Arnout.

Tumultuous events triggered by the death of a Dutch sugar plantation owner who ends up leaving his Indian Ocean island estate to his young illegitimate son - the child of his Indonesian housemaid.

Six people over seventy are at a turning point in their lives. Without knowing each other, they go on a journey together.

All the members of the De Roover family have ended up at a point of no return in their lives where crucial choices have to be made. Winnie wants a child. Her husband Rutmer wants to get in touch with his feelings. His brother Charlie doesn't want any responsibilities. Their brother-in-law Dick wants his deceased wife back. Head of the family Arend wants to be happy. Mother Jeannette wants somebody to want her. Written by Topkapi Films

Chez Nous is a feel good comedy and the name of a gay cafe in the heart of Amsterdam that is on the brink of being closed.

Professor Lupardi developed a weather machine with which he can change the climate and destroy the world. Can Captain Rob stop him?

Detectives Grijpstra and De Gier are sent to investigate the case of a man who apparently hanged himself in a center for oriental meditation. It is ruled as suicide and the case seems to be closed, but the same night there is an attempted break in. The investigation hits a dead end and everyone involved is a suspect. Based on the book "The Corpse in the Haarlemmer Houttuinen” by Jan-Willem van de Wetering.

Hartenstraat is set in the Nine Streets district of Amsterdam. It is a village in a big town and everyone seems to be looking for love. As the womanizer Bas, seniors Bep and Aart and the couple Rein and Jacob. The only one who is not looking for love is Daan. He lives here with his daughter Saar in Hartenstraat, where he has his own business as a caterer. Then Katje appears in his life. The pretty fashion designer opens a fashion boutique next door to Daan. When her catering unexpectedly cancels just before opening her shop Katje must appeal to Daan. That is asking for trouble since the two opposite each other in everything. Yet Katje also secretly has an eye on her neighbor, especially now that her current relationship with Thomas is not going strong.

A bartender watches with amusement as two strangers meet and duel verbally in his bar. Katya, a former dancer, is trying to forget the death of her young daughter. Pom, a comedian known for his verbal thrust and parry, tries to charm, shock and disgust his date in turn.

The rangers get a surprise visit from their fellow ranger Alwin, who has just returned after spending a year in India. But Alwin hasn’t come back without reason — he needs their help. In India, a herd of elephants has mysteriously disappeared. The rangers don’t hesitate for a moment and travel to India to help find them. Once there, it quickly becomes clear that the elephants have been kidnapped by ivory smugglers. The rangers decide to split into two groups: one heads deep into the jungle to track the elephants, while the other travels to Mumbai to follow the smugglers' trail. In their daring rescue mission, the rangers face not only danger and deception — they also somehow end up in the middle of an actual Bollywood film...

This is set in the world of the Old Masters and offers a mosaic of gripping stories in which unrestrained passion for Rembrandt's paintings leads to dramatic developments and unexpected plot turns.

This film was shot entirely in Rotterdam and shows the German couple David (Helmut Berger) and Tanya (Sheri Hagen) who are kept by Ludwig (Udo Kier), David's half-brother. Ludwig has some dubious business to do and so he is staying in the port for a while. David and Tanya have followed him and are staying in a hotel. They pass the time committing robberies. When David finds a photo of an attractive young man among the booty of a robbery, his life is turned upside down. He will have to close the door on a suffocating past.

Headstrong girl Kenza lives with her father Ouira and grandfather Weljo on a car wrecking yard in the countryside of Curaçao. The two men are opposites that don't particularly attract: Ouira is a determined and rational police officer, while Weljo identifies with the original inhabitants and spirituality of the island. As Weljo wishes to prepare his passing to the world of spirits, the relationship between Ouira en Weljo starts to escalate and the eleven-year-old Kenza searches for her own path in-between the two extremes. The down-to-earth and avoidant mentality of Ouira no longer offers her all that she needs and slowly she opens up to the more mystical and comforting traditions of her grandfather.

When womanizer Remco Albrecht celebrates his 65st birthday he has to deal with people from his past whom he would rather ignore.

Zion wants to have spend time with his girlfriend, Lanise, but her friends and family keep getting in the way.

Roy Rogers takes on crooked wartime profiteers in the musical western Ridin' Down the Canyon. Posing as solid citizens, the crooks spend their evening hours stealing horses from local ranchers, then selling the steeds to the government at exorbitant prices. The head of the bad guys runs a dude ranch where Rogers and his pals (The Sons of the Pioneers) are employed.

The story of a small and conservative West-Flemish village opposing the construction of a bridge over the Scheldt.

In the run-up to Christmas, a family completely misses the point in trying to be good. Brechtje, the mother of the family, gets cancelled by everyone, without understanding why. Her husband, Martijn, falls in love with his younger colleague, but true love can’t be denied (or so he thinks). Justus, the son-in-law, gets lost on a Don Quichotesque quest for his masculinity. While Jos, the middle child, changes the world around with her tolerance and open mindedness – until her girlfriend wants to have a threesome. And all of that happens just before their annual Christmas dinner.

A young woman spends an adventurous winter with a trapper on Spitsbergen.

March 11th, 2002. John R. takes the head of security and 17 others hostage in Amsterdam biggest skyscraper. John R. demands to speak with the Philips head of Sound&Vision. His goal is to warn people about a large-scale fraud, aimed at brainwashing consumers by means of widescreen TV sets. In the film, we find out about John's preliminary frustrations, his bizarre encounter with Philips head of Sound&Vision Gerard Wesselinck, their impossible friendship, rivalry and John's armed attempt to force the executive to do penance in public.

An outlaw must decide whether to stick his neck out for an innocent man.

When extreme weather suddenly hits the Netherlands in 1963, a 120-mile tour skating event taking place on natural ice forces its contestants to contend with life-threatening race conditions.

Anna travels to Spain to find out how her mother was at her age while she was a propper in one of the biggest clubs in Lloret.

Angie has just returned from an orphanage and everyone warns her to stay away from Alex, who leads a life of crime.

A thriller with a surprise twist about the NSA Deputy Director, who needs a genius plan to save his child from a kidnapper, who wants him to betray the privacy of all US citizens and make him the next Snowden with a devious marketing plan.

Sixteen-year-old Anne grows up in the isolated Biesbosch area, where spacious fields and power pylons define the landscape. With a group of friends, she spends a sultry summer holiday there trying to make the leap to maturity. But this shared experience turns into a conflict situation when Anna develops feelings for the tough girl Lena. Coming-of-age drama about growing pains, the inevitable end of childhood and choosing your own life - no matter how confusing your environment may find it.

Babak, an Iranian student in Greece, doesn't show up to welcome his visiting parents at the Athens airport. Pari and her older husband, both devout Muslims abroad for the first time, are ill-prepared to search for their son in an intimidating and alien environment. All their attempts to find a clue that might lead them to him prove to be in vain and they soon reach a dead end. But Pari can't give up looking for him, even when returning to Iran seems like her only choice. Following the steps of her rebellious son in the darkest corners of the city, she will exhaust her inner strength to achieve more than a mother's search for her missing son.

Sophie (30) decides to hike 500 kilometers through the Arctic region of Norway. She wants to get away from the pressure everyday life. But life at home doesn't seem to understand her desire to go be by herself.

Do we need animals to fill the void that should really be filled by people? To what extent do we project our own deprivation and longing on these sweet pets? All the protagonists in this documentary are indirectly afraid of being rejected and find safety and unconditional love in their animal(s). We observe these relationships and follow them in their steps to overcome their anxieties and insecurities and step into the world of humans more.

15-year-old Jesse is the only one who witnessed the stabbing of his friend Jonas. Now he has to face his family and friends from the BMX riders crew and explain the unexplainable - how he feels about it.

A curse that is centuries-old. An island full of annoying people. A contaminated prime-minister. A boy full of dreams who can turn this around. But how? A movie full of raps that don't rhyme, talking dolls and heroic actions.

Mr. Vitàl is the sole heir and initially very energetic nephew of an elderly rentier, Uncle Ken, who succumbs to years of excessive enjoyment of the finer things in life, especially too much gin and too much of his young maid Flavie. As the village doctor succinctly sums it up: 'L'Alcool et Flavie' broke Uncle Ken. The title refers to the esophageal ulcer, a result of alcohol abuse, which feels like a ball burning the throat. Although Mr. Vitàl is well aware of the causes of his uncle's demise, he eventually goes down the same path.

Nature documentary about a young wildebeest in the wilderness of Africa. The gnu calf strays from the herd and comes upon a lioness that kidnaps it. Instinctively, it treats the lion like its mother. And miraculously enough, the lioness does not see the calf as its prey. Like a true Survivor, the calf manages to escape from the lion's den and find its way back to its real mother.

The fainthearted cigar trader Ducker keeps himself quiet during World War II. That changes when parachutist Dorbeck lands in his backyard. It turns out the parachutist bears a remarkable resemblance to Ducker. Ducker follows Dorbeck blindly, becomes involved in the Dutch resistance and soon starts killing people. When he escapes through German lines to the freed South Netherlands, no one has ever heard of Dorbeck.

Five friends have their bond tested on a bachelorette party trip that quickly turns into a girls weekend from hell.

A prominent banker commits suicide. His son thinks otherwise and sets out to prove it.

A couple can not have children, because the man is infertile. They decide to abduct the most popular singer of the Netherlands (Dries Roelvink) and to get a child with her and his seed. This leads to embarrassing situations.

Bob and Annie separate. After the court case Annie gives Bob two airline tickets for a tropical island to save their relationship. However, Bob takes someone else with him on holiday: Carmen, the daughter of Mafioso Don Gorgonzola. Annie lags behind in Holland, where she falls in love again with other men.

By exploring the relationship between the watched and the watching, our film uncovers the trauma and hope engendered by the Chinese all-surveilling state and lends a voice to those that stand in resilient defiance of such blatant abuse of power.

The world is populated only by people with Down syndrome. One day, a boy is born who is different. He is not ‘normal’, because he looks a little bit different and behaves a little bit unusual.

Great adventures can hatch from the smallest eggs. Fucsia wants to learn to do magic just like her father, and so is pleased as punch when she is allowed to go to witches' school. There, Fucsia learns to make wind and conjures with the clouds. But her magic often has unexpected results, however, as she is sometimes that little bit too ambitious.

Three friends drive from Holland to Morocco to deliver a taxi to a family friend, but the trip turns out more complicated than expected.

With input from actor and writer Jan Hlobil, director and cinematographer Rene Smaal presents a film in the true surrealist tradition, in the sense that only 'found' elements were used, and that it defies interpretation based on ordinary cause-and-effect time sequence.

Susan has chosen a hermit's life on a dilapidated farm over the shallowness of her previous jet set modeling life. When Anton, a hunky courier, comes along to pick her up for an assignment on the French Riviera, he's so fascinated by Susan's odd assortment of house guests that he decides to stay with them for a couple of days.

Doodslag (Dutch for "Manslaughter") is the story of Max, a paramedic who is repeatedly hindered in performing his duties by loutish behaviour. As his ambulance hurries towards a complicated childbirth, some youths prevent Max from reaching the distressed woman in labour. Spurred on by the emergency and the incendiary words of a TV pundit, he reaches a boiling point and forcefully hits one of the men obstructing his ambulance. Max's strike has far-reaching, unintended consequences.

June 2023, one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. In Kyiv, a class is visiting the Natural History Museum, guided by a paleontology teacher who transports the schoolchildren into a faraway and peaceful world.

A woman and her two young children struggle for answers and shared closure after their husband and father, a professional cave diver, doesn't return from an expedition.

Bachelor Antoin is tired of being alone. His neighbor Rob decides to help him, and brings Antoin into contact with Russian Natasha who moves in with him. What Antoin not know is that Natasha actually the secret internet lover of married Rob, and the arrangement is nothing but a front to have her near him.

Jan has been married to Gedda for 35 years. Gedda loves Jan so much that she smothers him: before he can grab a glass from the table, she has already given him one. She picks out his clothing, his friends, his vacations and all their other activities. In an attempt to get some space Jan concocts a strange plan that literally transforms his marriage into a locked ward. Their daughter finds herself in a similar predicament with her exacting and jealous boyfriend.

Three loners from Sitges, Berlin and Amsterdam try to blend together in Brussels, city of unification.

On sunny Curaçao, the sarcastic Emy (Carré Albers) works at a five-star hotel for the rich and famous. Her life takes an unexpected turn when the charming movie star Nathan Levi (Twan Kuyper) visits the hotel.

A fragmented portrait of a moment, a person, and a place, seen through the subjective memories of a young Black girl, Imani, and a rookie police officer, David, who both have wildly different recollections of the same fateful moment in a corner store that will leave their lives altered forever.

After a night out, a young woman chooses to walk home alone, turning an ordinary journey into a tense confrontation with the fear many women experience daily.

Peter is a cheerful -- but not very obedient -- boy from a very ordinary family in pre-war Rotterdam. His many pranks amuse some and cause a lot of trouble to others, even making the front pages of the big city newspapers. His growing popularity brings him many new friends, but also some very powerful enemies.

Twenty three year old virtuoso pianist Jennifer Rogiers has been living with a terrible secret most of her life. When she enters the world famous Queen Elisabeth competition the memory of a traumatic childhood experience surfaces again.

Counterfeit bills are being printed in Canada and shipped across the border hidden in blocks of ice. When the counterfeiters force engraver Bronson to make a new plate, he inscribes a tiny help message on it. Renfrew catches a henchman who has one of the new bills. A magnifying glass lets him read the message and he heads out alone to round up the counterfeiters.

A poignant insight into the world of sport, where talent, passion and endurance mean everything, but give no guarantee of success.

A promising young Dutch-Moroccan trumpet player sets out to succeed at a posh Amsterdam music conservatory.

8-BALL is a crime drama that chronicles the lives of Johnny and his three childhood friends in Queens, New York and their fateful encounter with neighborhood mobster, Ramone Torzo. Events that occurred 10 years ago in the gritty pool halls of New York City resurface and threaten Ramone's new high-powered life in modern-day Hollywood. Sensing the inevitable collision course with history, Ramone eventually discovers that a man can never truly escape his past.