Discoveries from Netherlands World Cinema

Dutch modern re-telling of the famous fairytale Cinderella.

When Madelief's grandmother dies, her mother takes her to the funeral. She then visits her grandfather, but quickly gets bored, until Mischa tells her how much fun a rural summer can be. She investigates her grandmother's "summer house", made curious by the lock on the door. Madelief didn't remember her grandmother, but from her snooping in the summer house she learns a lot about her. Written by Steve Schonberger

October 1997. Paul Winters (35) is deputy public prosecutor in Arnhem and is working on his first major case: an investigation in to the allegations of a Bosnian girl that she was raped by three soldiers in the Dutch UN contingent and whose brother is alleged to have been killed by them. Winters suspects that the girl is telling the truth, but he can't prove it and the case is adjourned. Then one of the men gives a revealing statement that throws a different light on the case. Winters argues in favour of reopening the case, but faces opposition from an unexpected quarter.

Sick and tired of living in poverty in post-war Germany, Fred Bogner has left his wife Käte with their three children. They continue to meet on a casual basis every time Fred can find money enough to book a hotel room. Based on the German novel 'Und sagte kein einziges Wort' by Heinrich Böll.

James leads a lonely life in a luxurious castle in which his parents run a hotel. He never goes out with friends, spends his spare time in his room and peeks at the hotel's guests out of boredom and curiosity. Chased by his controlling mother, who only wants him to finish his homework, James is more interested in the group of handsome Swedish soccer players staying at the hotel. When he finds one of the boys injured at the hotel's swimming pool, James offers his help and smuggles the boy into his room and locks the door. Locked up with a strange boy in his own room, James experiences the complexity of his own sexual feelings for the first time.

72 minute live performance in Amsterdam on November 30, 2022.

Afghan documentary maker Najiba Noori offers not only a loving and intimate portrait of her mother Hawa, but also shows in detail how the arduous improvement of the position of women is undone by geopolitical violence. The film follows the fortunes of Noori’s family, who belong to the Hazaras, an ethnic group that has suffered greatly from discrimination and persecution.

Farmer Jan Alting, who has disowned his son for collaborating with the nazis, provides shelter for a Jewish couple, a wanted communist and a rebel aristocrat. When his son returns, Jan is faced with the stark moral choice of failing those to whom he has given refuge, or conspiring with them to kill his own son.

Two Afghan illegal aliens take a walk at night. To the rhythm of their nocturnal stroll, we see how the Dutch reality, from bare mattresses in a condemned building, breakdancing in the street to running from the police, is at odds with their phone calls to relatives who stayed behind and have both concerns and high expectations. To reassure the home front, one Afghan takes a picture of himself in front of a nice house and expensive car.

Director Leon de Winter has taken a thriller with political and psychological overtones, and scrambled it into a series of vignettes that are mixed-up in time and in location, thereby dashing any hope of following the story. A journalist goes to a southern European country to interview a well-known terrorist who has refused to stop his activities even though the revolution he fought for ended successfully five years earlier. Questions are raised about adopting violence as a way of life without at first realizing it and about the seeming impossibility of raising the consciousness of backwater cultures. Perhaps because of the way the story has been filleted into fragments, characters like the journalist and terrorist do not have enough continuous screen time to build up their individuality, a second factor that makes it difficult to become involved in the drama.

The seventeen year old Stach is faced with five impossible assignments he has to complete in order to become king. Things do not go as easily as the boisterous Stach had expected, especially when he is confronted with matters of life and death.

Danny is a student that barely gets any attention at home because his mother is mentally ill. At school however, he is very popular and known as a big bully. His main victim is Suus, a lesbian classmate who faces many problems due to her sexual orientation.

Two friends, the Dutch-Moroccan Raja and the Dutch Nancy are both about twenty years old and travel by car to Morocco to buy furniture for their new henna- and nail studio. They see life as a challenge and because of their close friendship, they feel they can take on anything. But during their trip something happens, which has a big impact on the lives of the two girls..

Among the 'Oogappels' families, things get pretty stressful this Christmas and it is a feast of recognition. Erik and Chris actually want to skip the holidays for a year. Fabie faces a major disappointment and Carola and Marcel are rocked by a shocking event during Christmas dinner. Tim and Dina's mood also leaves something to be desired, after a Christmas party at Tim's work gets out of hand. The grandparents know exactly what is going on and, as always, make razor-sharp comments: the more we do our best to push away anything complicated or negative, the greater the chances of violent explosions.

Born in Amsterdam in 1943, Paul, a Jewish man, attempts to locate his twin brother (or perhaps his alter ego), who was abducted forty years ago and sent to a Nazi concentration camp. As he searches, he becomes increasingly immersed in the story of his life, as well as in an analysis of post-war Jewish identity.

Abandoned by their parents, two teenage siblings navigate life in youth care.

Indy's (Bibi) slimy adventure continues as a mysterious slime stone with magical powers suddenly appears from outer space. When the evil Xenia Kobalt takes hold of the stone the entire world bursts into a fight. Indy, the happy alien Klatu and slime friends both new and old have to go to the impossible to stop Xenia.

Enabled by a mysterious futuristic machine, Max, a young woman, dives inside the mind of her dying girlfriend, trying to find the essential memory that could save her life, all the while being hunted by a man they presumed to be dead.

Unique portrait of Louis van Gaal: one of the best soccer coaches our country has ever known and the man about whom everyone has an opinion. In the film we see Van Gaal in his colorful life; not only his career, but also his background, family life and passions. For three years, the current national coach was filmed during work and private moments. In conversations with national and international soccer stars, but also with his wife and daughters, a complete picture emerges of the development of the Van Gaal phenomenon, his unprecedented career and the remarkable man behind the much-discussed image.

Thirty-year-old Robin leaves the city to go to a logging camp for a few days. But is it a logging camp or a men's camp? Robin is seen as an intruder, and after the earlier confusion and outrage, cannot escape strong examples of mansplaining, bullying and downright sexist campfire jokes. Just as long as it explodes. After all that taking it, Robin can't help but break the silence.

Two wealthy young brothers living on a plush estate give refuge to a petty criminal who is on the run from the police. Neither the boys' parents or their staff know about the fugitive's presence, which leads them open to exploitation. Sure enough, they soon discover the fugitive has no intention of leaving.

Sam and Do (short for Dominique) have been together for five years. They enjoy life and are very happy. But then Do gives birth to their son Max. Their whole life is suddenly upside down. Can their love survive after the arrival of their baby?

Single mum Lena is struggling with her job: she's a writer of love songs, but because of the lack of romance in her life, she's not inspired anymore. Her friend Valerie thinks she has the perfect solution: she hires a jobless actor to seduce Lena.

Two men in a village are beaten up by a group of young­sters. A female detec­tive tries to find out why the two do not want to report the assault.

Kawa Nemir is like a walking dictionary of the Kurdish language. He flees Turkey and takes refuge at Anne Frank's former house in Amsterdam. Will he be able to finish the translation of Ulysses and publish it?

Television adaptation/registration of the theatre program by the Dutch children's theatregroup RoTheater. The play is a comical adaptation of the fairytale of Puss in Boots.

Drama on the dawning love between a Polish woman and a farmer. Anna is forced to work in a brothel, but manages to escape. She's found, exhausted and scared, by Henk (the farmer) who offers her a place to stay, but her past chases her.

Love is the Word is a moving, romantic and funny coming-of-age drama about the magic of first love and the misery of first lost, set in 1978: the year 'Grease' hit the big screen.

Bert Haanstra paints a portrait of The Netherlands and the Dutch, in his own unparalleled manner. Partly with the aid of a hidden camera he observes people in the most diverse situations. He shows the unusual in the usual and the usual in the unusual. The harsh years of the post war era of reconstruction have passed and for most people life is better than before.

When he finds out that his company has expropriated his own mother, a successful young manager gets deeply upset. Money and power now have a different meaning. He needs to struggle against his own self and stake everything in order to reorganize true values in his life. His career is at stake. When his mother dies in the pension she's been put, his point of limit is reached. He feels responsible and takes revenge through terrorist actions. The beast explodes.

Jason joins a group of criminal thrill-seekers to find out what happened with his vanished girlfriend.

Burned-out comedian Ralph Hartman suffers from severe anxiety and fears he's being passed over by younger comedians. But his biggest problem comes in the form of his imaginary alter ego: a bearded, high-pitched sadist who follows him everywhere he goes.

The Maelstrom makes extraordinary artful use of considerable cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II and dealing with the extended Peereboom family. Information is conveyed through subtitles and instead of voice-over, the soundtrack consists of period sound, usually from radio broadcasts, and brooding, disturbing jazz score by Tibor Szemzõ. What wee see is a Jewish family first living unknowingly in the shadow of the Holocaust and then trying to cope with it still unaware of what it will finally mean. A shot of the film's photographer Max Peereboom, and his family we've come to know, cheerfully sewing and doing general preparation for a trip to a "work camp" when their destination was in reality the nightmare of Auschwitz adds a devastating dimension to our understanding of the Final Solution that nothing else, no Hollywood movie, no documentary, has been able to provide.

A fairytale about a young girl who learns to play chess and at the same time finds her father.

A brand new movie starring the immensely popular family vloggers Bellinga. The family is preparing for the summer holidays, but that does not go without a hitch. A movie full of new, catchy songs! It's vacation and the whole Bellinga family has packed their bags for a luxurious dream trip to France. They are really looking forward to it, but do not yet know that dad Daniel has accidentally lost the holiday money. While Daniel tries to delay the journey, Neighbor Bets has come up with a plan to quickly recoup the lost money. If that works out in time, the holiday can still go ahead! Meanwhile, Luan and Lucilla find out, thanks to a very special suitcase and the Bellinga Vacation Bucket List, that you don't really need any luxury at all for a super fun summer vacation.

A teenage hypochondriac and his equally peculiar mother, father and adolescent sister set out on a tumultuous road trip from Amsterdam to Spain when a family member falls severely ill.

Jasmijn struggles with writer's block following a fatal accident. The only thing she keeps writing are letters to Wim, the victim's widower. However, he never replies. Jasmijn realises that she can't go on like this and leaves for Morocco, where Wim runs a hotel.

Nienke is studying medicine and working at the hospital when Appie is suddenly brought into the emergency room. She discovers that he has been cursed by a Germanic Order. There is only one way to help him and that is to get The Club of the Old Willow back together. It will be a race against time to save Appie, but even more a battle for the old friendship. Can the lure of adventure bring The Club back together? Can the old residents put aside their own differences and disputes?

In a dystopian future, it is possible to print customized drugs and psychedelics with any effect from your home computer. Alice is trapped in her depressive life and desperately seeking an escape. She finds a brand new psychedelic drug: Nirvana -- designed to distort your reality. Alice takes the drug and arrives in Wonderland as her alter ego, Ecila. What initially seems like a euphoric experience of happiness slowly turns into a nightmare, forcing Ecila to face her demons.

Eline is an insecure physiotherapist who takes care of six-year-old Joy, the daughter of the embittered and suspicious widower Lars. Joy ended up in a rehabilitation center due to a car accident. Eline soon realizes that Joy's father Lars is the key to the daughter's recovery. In her determination to help Joy, she pushes her insecurity aside and confronts Lars. Since the car accident, he has only focused on himself and his work.

Natasha goes to Limburg to collect her brother Ramses, who has joined a communal cult, so he can consent to cutting their father's life support.

Slightly absurdist story about a busy working mother who is left to herself when her husband forgets about their family outing. Stressed, she arrives at the fun fair with her children, where she is annoyed to find herself surrounded by all sorts of beaming families. A feeling of loneliness besets her. In her search for warmth and security, she not dispenses with her husband, but also her common sense.

A family's stability is shaken by the teenage son's drift towards extremism

In an abandoned fort, a man tries to recover his lost love. He is prepared to make great sacrifices to do so. Everything, to be complete again.

Psychodrama. Black and white images of a mining area under the influence of a highly orthodox Catholicism in the 1930s are interspersed with color images of a protest action to save a small church.

Filmmaker Emma Boelhouwer has no affinity whatsoever with darts. Until she is zapping on TV one night and ends up in the middle of a nerve-racking darts game. She is seized by the look on the face of the young, still unknown darter Michael van Gerwen and knows right away: this fellow from Noord-Brabant will become a star. She rushes headlong - with her camera - into a world that is completely new to her.

VPRO icon Wim Brands died on April 4, 2016. He was known to the general public as a presenter of the VPRO Boeken program and also closer, with six collections of poetry to his name. This documentary about his life and work, built entirely from archive material, pays tribute to this television personality. A portrait in which attention is also paid to his complicated relationship with death. With a.o. Karl Ove Knausgård, David Sedaris, Ellen Deckwitz and Pieter Boskma. Brands' work merges with his rich inner life and that he chose death at the age of 56 casts a shadow over everything.

Max Verstappen had a season to list: a second world title and a record number of GP victories and points. In this interview, Max looks back on the successful year 2022 with Amber Brantsen.

Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!: The Rolling Stones in Concert is the second live album by the Rolling Stones, released on 4 September 1970 in the UK and the United States. It was recorded in New York City and Baltimore in November 1969 prior to the release of Let It Bleed.

With extraordinary access and urgent storytelling, Antidote anchors its timely narrative on whistleblowers and activists who have worked to uncover Vladimir Putin’s deadly regime — and are now facing dangerous and fatal consequences for their courageous actions.

The men of Chemics International lead a quiet life. However, this is cruelly disrupted by an industrial accident in which a toxic substance is released. Some workers are killed; many others are irrevocably contaminated and may suffer permanent injuries. The management, government, press and unions do not react, seeing this as an unfortunate incident. When one of Herman and Jef's best friends also dies, they have had enough. Together they made an ultimate attempt to reveal the truth to the outside world.

Set in an alternate, post-apocalyptic 1976, a filmmaker follows a worn and disillusioned photographer who, despite the circumstances, continues to make pictures.

When he wins a contest, seventeen-year-old Daniel Montero gets to spend a night in Buenos Aires with his favorite adult movie star, Sabrina Love. However, getting there will be half the trouble of meeting Sabrina.

Sam and Star had long been friends. Sam's father is a detective and thus learn to know Ortwin. Ortwin's the rare parrot is in fact stolen. Ortwin's father enlists the help of Max, but Max is kidnapped during their quest by a gang of criminals. The kids put a chase with a speedboat and end up on a mysterious island fortress.

His new album Black Messiah (2015) has been dubbed a masterpiece and the show that the king of ‘groove, croon and swoon’ brought to Amsterdam earlier this year was a sensual, romping, sometimes raunchy and completely unforgettable soul spectacle. A unique opportunity to see this reborn master of soul hit the heights once again.

Robertico is forced to pay 200.000 gulden in damages due to a dodgy dealing. He pretends to be a business man to obtain an investment from the rich Ken Maduro. Until he falls in love with Ken's daughter.