Discoveries from Netherlands World Cinema

Docu drama of a true story from august 1944 about belgians who worked for the germans nicknamed as de zwarten the blacks who tortuered en killed habitans of a village called Meensel Kiezegem.

Folk comedy in which the import/exportbusiness of Jef Dijckman is getting in dire straits ... .

Two schoolgirls act as society ladies, evoking an atmosphere of the roaring twenties. A transvestite tries to read while spaghetti descends on his head.

A film about the feeling of immortality of a group of young friends who lost one of their best friends. During a short trip, they seem to party unrestrained. But how does the harsh confrontation with death resonate in their lives?

Liliane Springer, the daughter of Antwerpen office manager, has fallen in love with a football player, Raymond Smet. The trouble is that he is the star player of the Green team whereas her father is dedicated supporter of the White football team. Will love be stronger than sectarianism?

Ronnie Flex, one of the Netherlands' most successful rappers, struggles with fatherhood, a new album, depression, drink and drugs.

Short funny animation about a heart transplant.

Bram Moszkowicz was dropped from the bar in 2013 as a lawyer, but now, seven years later, he wants to return. Crime reporter John van den Heuvel follows him in the run-up to the hearing of the Court of Discipline until the result of March 30, 2020. A process that depends on the fallen lawyer. Did Bram Moszkowicz improve his life? John speaks for and opponents, including: Geert Wilders, Jeroen Pauw and Elsevier journalist Gerlof Leistra.

The young teenager Josie grows up in a house with a lively family where the door is never closed. There is always a lot of hubbub, banging on doors, a TV playing and a big brother coming by to tease her. She does not like the bustle or noise at all. When one day she happens to be home alone for the first time, she cautiously looks around with new eyes. She finally has everything to herself. But perhaps it is a bit too quiet now. The title of this debut is Swahili for 'silence'.

Daan Wielens is 25 years old and has never had sex. As a result, he feels an enormous pressure. In his graduation film, Daan speaks to friends, his parents and experts about his struggle with sex.

In September last year, 18-year-old Jay-Ronne Grootfaam was stabbed to death in Amsterdam South East with a machete. And that is not the only stabbing in the Netherlands that we saw in the news. How is it that the carrying of knives among such young boys and girls seems to become increasingly normal? And what is the link with the aggressive music style drill music?

A portrait of a contemporary, artist and drug user.

A film by Tomas Kaan about the friendship between 12-year old Jim and 10-year old Sam and the last summer they spend together before Jim goes to high school. A story about friendship, growing up and what it means to be a boy.

This documentary tells the story of an 80-year-old woman who has "...nothing else to do but to sit and think."

Documentary on the murder of Theo van Gogh on 02 november 2004.

Documentary about the monument Joods Werkdorp.

Elias doesn't feel understood or seen in Ijmuiden where he works at the fishing tackle. He misses his parents after their departure for Turkey. When his brother, Kemal, rents their parents' bedroom, Tom comes to live with them. Seen first as an intruder, Tom turns out to help Elias in his journey to discover himself.

A documentary about four gay people who made the decision to have a child in a world of mainly straight parenthood.

The Soviet General Vlasov remains one of the most intriguing, yet least known figures of World War II. In 1942, the German war machine had come to a halt near the Russian city of Leningrad. The Russian Second Assault Army, led by General Vlasov, fights itself to death in an effort to break the German siege. Their general is captured and later defects to the Germans. In ANGELS OF DEATH we experience the fate of General Vlasov’s army as we hear the personal accounts of those who died in the massacre through their poems, letters and photographs.

Victor’s family still has a hard time trying to cope with his loss of sight from a long time ago. Desperately in search of a solution, Lucien causes a calm celebration to erupt in a chain of emotions.

In 2015, Nuhad, a 53-year-old Syrian woman, decided to leave Damascus. Her destination was Beirut to stay with her son's friend Angie, a 27-year-old Lebanese woman. Angie’s house becomes Nuhad's sole refuge. Angie observes the older lady and finds intersections between her own life and Nuhad’s: they both are vainly trying to move out of their own walls to find the right place to exist in.

“The Principal Wife” is an impressive and moving demonstration of how to trace one's family history even if no one is willing to talk about it. At its centre is the 38-year-old painter Marijke van der Meulen, whose mother Aagje left her and the family to join a Christian sect when her daughter was eight.

The sequel to Vermist (“Missing“) from 2014. This time, Kimberley and her brother Matthias are the victims. Who is behind this, and why?

Loss won’t pay the bills is a moving and humorous portrait of Holland’s oldest greengrocer and his wife, who put their heart and soul into running their business and don’t want to hear about quitting. Adrie and Francien’s greengrocer’s shop in Flushing’s old town has been there for 65 years. Old age has affected their walking ability, but Adrie still works 14 to 16 hours a day. Just before they got married in 1957, they went on holiday for the first and last time. Since then they haven’t got around to it. Working hard is their creed. Ada, Adrie’s much younger sister, helps out in the shop every day. She worries at the prospect of spending three months in the south of France. Will Adrie and Francien be able to carry on or will they have to close down their shop?

REFUGE tells the story of three illegal Afghan boys in Holland who are searching for their future and identity as homosexuals or Christian. They are supported by Dutch pensioners who help them to survive and to find their way through Dutch society, rules and regulations.

The film shows the interior of Suriname. Central to this is the Marowijne River with its villages, and how the rich society of Creoles (Afro-Surinamese), Hindustani, Javanese, Chinese, Boeroes (descendants of Dutch farmers' immigrants), Indians and Maroons live together. Wide rivers flow through the jungles of Suriname, mostly peaceful, but sometimes furiously against the rocks. Indians hunt for fish, while Marons prove that they are masters of driving their narrow boats. The Surinamese are sensitive musicians when they play their flute, which is shaped like bamboo. The jungle is a vibrant sea of green and there are flowers of every color that you can imagine. This is the interior of Suriname. The majority of the population lives on the coast, where the capital Paramaribo is also situated, a city that is lively and contains many different population groups, with their own clothing and language.

In 2014 actor Michel van Dousselaere (Gent, 1948) was diagnosed with a rare form of progressive aphasia, a brain disorder that affects the language center. The film shows how he deals with this loss of language and of the profession he practiced for more than 30 years. Against all odds Michel takes on one last role. His wife Irma Wijsman helps him to find new ways of expression and to stay focused. In their search, friends and colleagues draw close and talk about the unimaginable situation of no longer being able to grasp the words that elusively disappear. Showing the events in the first years after the diagnosis, the film makes clear how language defines our identity and what it means to redefine oneself. But foremost the film shows two powerful people who take control over a dramatic turn in their life. Acknowledging the sorrow with humor and undying love.

A retrospective on 9/11 through the eyes of Dutch New Yorkers

A film of non-Euclidean and symbolically authentic adventures

The story of someone at a party, who just can't seem to enjoy herself.

A man holds a cup of hot tea and is daydreaming.

A surreal short set to dutch rapper Tony Scott's song The Greenhouse Effect.

Musical by Van Hoorne Entertainment. In a humorous way, with beautiful sets and swinging music, we are introduced to a poor miller who divides his possessions between his two sons. The eldest son gets the mill, the youngest gets only the cat. It seems a bit unfair, until it turns out that this is no ordinary cat...

From the perspectives of a dozen diverse viewers, this short explores the peculiar ritual of watching film. How is the medium experienced by people with sensory impairments, strong religious beliefs, or lovesickness? A story about moving images and their audience.

A spew of images swarm the screen; appearing before no answers-man and his machinery, denuded wholly of its grace and beauty.

On his travels to South-America, Plaat tried to capture the omnipresence of Carlos Cardel, the king of Tango. The film stands out in composition, light and colour in combination with the tango music.

Film #37 is part of an ongoing exploration of the propagation and diffraction of light through holes and grids.

Filmmaker Maarten Koopman‘s animated series of famous paintings, imagined piece by piece from some new perspectives.

In 1960, Utrecht University took over the Studio for Electronic Music from Philips. In this studio in Utrecht, composers and artists worked on their own compositions. In 1961, Jan Vrijman made a film about Karel Appel, De werkelijkheid van Karel Appel, and Appel himself made a musical composition for this film in the studio in Utrecht. Van der Elsken films and photographs Appel during the composition of his Musique Barbare, as well as recording conversations on tape; the film is in fact a kind of collage of film, photographs and sound. As well as an exceptional record of Karel Appel’s working process, this film is a unique documentation of the studio and therefore a significant piece of Dutch musical history.