Discoveries from Netherlands World Cinema

A zoo veterinarian gets caught up in a grisly adventure as she finds herself leading the city-wide hunt for a monstrous lion terrorizing the Dutch capital of Amsterdam.

A cocksure, road-raging family man finds himself pursued and terrorized by the vengeful van driver he chooses to tailgate.

On a sweltering summer day, Bianca feels unseen by her parents. Then an unexpected encounter with her favourite female actor, Billie King, helps her to find herself. A tender, imaginative tale about dreams and carving out a space for yourself in life.

Patrick is a 45-year-old factory worker who still lives with his single mother. When he discovers that his estranged father is alive and living on Bonaire, he impulsively travels to the island to meet him. Shortly after his arrival, his father dies, leaving Patrick an unexpected inheritance: a struggling seaside resort. Suddenly far from the only life he has ever known, Patrick must navigate island culture, financial troubles, and his own self-doubt as he learns to take responsibility — not only for the resort, but for himself...

Just before Anne is moving from Amsterdam to live with her great love Sara in Montreal, her publisher criticizes the manuscript for her first novel. What exactly is the story she's trying to tell? Does she even have something to say at all? Anne is forced to search for what she wants in life, because it is not only the main character in her novel who seems to be a little lost.

A low-class antisocial family ends up in a rich upper-class neighborhood and causes all sorts of trouble.

Super Miss is back! When a brightly coloured parrot lands in Miss Josje’s garden one sunny, spring day, it turns out to be the start of a grand adventure. The parrot has flown all the way from the South American jungle in search of help. The area where the parrots live is under threat of being developed into a large holiday resort. But can Miss Josje, as Superteacher, fly all the way to the other side of the world? And what can she to do stop the bulldozers all on her own?

A woman with a steady marriage and a little daughter, goes bezerk and enters a seducing game.

Georgy is driving a load of freight into Russia when, after an unpleasant encounter with the police at a border crossing, he finds himself giving a lift to a strange old man with disturbing stories about his younger days in the Army. After next picking up a young woman who works as a prostitute and is wary of the territory, Georgy finds himself lost, and despite asking some homeless men for help, he’s less sure than he was before of how to make his way back where he belongs. As brutal images of violence and alienation cross the screen, Georgy’s odyssey becomes darker and more desperate until it reaches an unexpected conclusion.

Disappointed with humanity, God wants to revoke his contract with humanity and wants to take back the stone tablets containing the ten commandments. To this end an angel is sent out to affect the personal lives of three humans so an appropriate child may be conceived.

Johanna wants to change her life and quit the criminal gangs of the town of Oss in the 1930s. The harder she tries, the more she is involved.

Gerrie, Richard, Rikkert, Robbie and Barry from Maaskantje are in a big fight with the village of Schijndel. When a zombie kills someone from Brabant, things get out of hand.

At the end of WWII the Dutch resistance kills a German officer in front of the house of a Dutch family. Years after the war the young boy who witnessed the killing runs into the members of the resistance who committed the killing.

Patrick is the handyman on his father's naturist campsite. The remaining time he dedicates to his hobby, designing and creating wooden furniture. When Patrick loses his campsite hammer, his quest to retrieve it takes him to the farthest corners of the camping grounds.

When Russian workers in Bernie’s house turn out to be wanted criminals, Bernie has to man up and save his ’90s sitcom family.

The Black Widow is not dead ... Drug Queen Carmen van Walraven is hiding in Canada and leads an anonymous life there. One evening a colleague is harassed and Carmen helps her. In self-defense, she kills the perpetrator, is arrested and extradited to the Netherlands. While her children are in shock that their mother is still alive, there are also some people who still have to settle something with Carmen. Everyone is again dragged into an emotional rollercoaster. Carmen will now have deal with her past to save her family.

Gaby, a heritage chicken keeper, is turned upside down when an arrogant air balloon pilot crashes on her chicken coop. The crash reveals the roots of a family conflict and forces Gaby to confront the air balloon pilot as well as her past.

A David's classmate, Jochem, is harassed by three bullies, but nobody does anything at school, not even David, who feels guilty for not pointing out the culprits.

An assistant prosecutor zealously pursues a conviction in the case of a pediatric nurse accused of murdering her patients, but doubt arises when her evidence shows that the infants may have died of natural causes.

Waldemar Nods, a young man from Suriname, meets the older Dutch woman Rika van der Lans and they fall in love. In pre-WWII Netherlands they could not be more different. The one black, the other white, 17 years between them and on top of that Rika already has four children with another man. They love each other, but then Rika appears to be pregnant.

13 year old Coco loves fashion and has her own unique style. She dreams of becoming a famous fashion icon. But on her first day of school she is made fun of and everyone calls her 'Coco the Clown'. Devastated, she decides to leave her vintage dresses, panther boots and striped socks at home and to dress herself more unnoticeable. Her anonymously kept fashion vlog as Style Tiger is a huge hit however. Is there still a chance that she will become a style icon? And does Bruno, that quirky boy she knows from school and secretly likes, finally notice her? Slowly Coco learns that she just has to be 100% herself!

Kena and Ziki long for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and remain close friends, supporting each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.

When caregiver Noor is offered her dream job as a chef in Paris, she can no longer care for her father Musa, who suffers from dementia. In response, she helps him migrate to Morocco, which causes resistance among the rest of the family.

An ambitious ecologist returning to her childhood home on the Dutch island of Ameland discovers a dangerous drug smuggling route, forcing her to choose between exposing the truth and protecting those she loves.

The short film “Non Grata” offers a fictional interpretation of the mysterious disappearance of Sister Gaby in 1982. Sister Gaby from Dendermonde was conducting a secret investigation into the sexual escapades and financial fraud of her superior, Canon Gaston Mornie. But before she could submit her findings to the church authorities, she vanished without a trace.

In pre-WWII Holland, the penniless, illegitimate son of a powerful bailiff sets out to become a lawyer as he spends a lifetime struggling to prove his worth to his relentlessly spiteful father.

The loss of their young daughter threatens to destroy the love and faith of two married musicians.

Antwerp, Belgium. The lives of four small-time drug dealers spin out of control when they steal a shipment of cocaine, triggering a full out war between an Amsterdam drug lord and a ruthless Colombian cartel.

When people literally explode from emotional overload, grief is just the beginning. A wildly surrealist charade in which a bereaved man, his friend and mother spiral through village life.

Not a traditional band biography, but a quirky, smart, and occasionally unrestrained ride, much like the group itself: unpredictable, funny, sharp, and still very much at the top of its game.

When his grandfather suddenly falls ill, holiday-hating Jules learns of his family's magical legacy and realizes he's the only hope to save Christmas.

During World War II in the freezing winter of 1944-45 the western Netherlands are in the grip of a famine. Many people move east to provide for their families. Fourteen year old Michiel can't wait to join the Dutch resistance, to the dismay of his father, who, as mayor, works to prevent escalations in the village.

Thirty years ago, Diego Gutiérrez moved to the Netherlands. For his latest film, he returned to Mexico, seeking answers to lingering questions. How do you cope with loneliness and grief? How do you connect with nature? Is an easier life in a less dangerous country also a better life?

When Ruth's husband dies in New York, in 2000, she imposes strict Jewish mourning, which puzzles her children. A stranger comes to the house - Ruth's cousin - with a picture of Ruth, age 8, in Berlin, with a woman the cousin says helped Ruth escape. Hannah, Ruth's daughter engaged to a gentile, goes to Berlin to find the woman, Lena Fisher, now 90. Posing as a journalist investigating intermarriage, Hannah interviews Lena who tells the story of a week in 1943 when the Jewish husbands of Aryan women were detained in a building on Rosenstrasse. The women gather daily for word of their husbands. The film goes back and forth to tell Ruth and Lena's story. How will it affect Hannah?

As the line between mentorship and manipulation slowly begins to blur, 12-year-old Daan faces the most terrifying challenge of his young life - distinguishing his football coach's attachment from abuse.

Monopoly – Who Owns The World is an independent documentary produced by Tim Geilen. The film shows the institutional investment firms that sit at the top of the complex and opaque corporate pyramid structure. Monopoly shines a much-needed light on these corporations, the people behind them, and their rapacious behavior.

Jennifer, an Australian girl on the run from her past, turns up in Amsterdam and, in a desperate attempt to blend in, joins a coach-load of tourists on a tour of Holland's old windmills. When the bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere, she and the other tourists are forced to seek shelter in a disused shed beside a sinister windmill where a devil-worshiping miller once ground the bones of locals instead of grain. As members of the group start to disappear, Jennifer learns that they all have something in common – a shared secret that seems to mark them all for doom.

An elderly goat herder falls victim to a scam promising long-awaited reparations for her father's WWII service. Structured as a series of recurring visual 'variations', Variations on a Theme is a portrait of endurance and loss.

In this intimate family portrait, documentary filmmaker Tom Fassaert observes the relationship between his father Rob (72) and his older brother René (75). What begins as a tragicomic film about their unusual dynamic – one was a psychologist for many years, the other a psychiatric patient – turns into a moving search for their unknown roots.

Bennie, a clumsy criminal who's touchy about his weight, teams up with his adoptive father's biological (serial killer) son, his employees who in his absence turned his snack-bar into a quiche bakery, a suicidal manic-depressive woman and a Yugoslavian who keeps blowing things up unintended. They need to get 300000 Euro to get Bennies father a new liver.

Touda is a Sheikha, a traditional Moroccan singer. Performing in the bars of her provincial town under the gaze of men, she plans to leave for the lights of Casablanca in search of recognition and to ensure a better future for her deaf-mute son.

A personal and captivating account of the extraordinary life and work of Ingrid Bergman (1915-82), a young Swedish woman who became one of the most celebrated actresses in world cinema.

Gerrit de Veer, a novice writer on a 16th-century Dutch merchant vessel, chronicles the daring mission to discover a trade route across the North Pole to Asia. But the heroic journey turns into tragedy when the ship gets stuck in the relentless, penetrating ice. The men are forced to spend the winter on the frozen, arctic wasteland of Nova Zembla, fighting polar bears, hunger and lethal temperatures. Their chances of making it until the following spring are virtually zero.

Betriek lives at the edge of a peat bog in the North of the Netherlands. When she and her family are attacked by a random stranger one night, Betriek sets out to find an explanation. The more she digs, the more she becomes convinced that she is being hunted by something ancient.

Professional scoundrel Annabel manages to lose almost everything she has in one night: her inheritance, her house and her relationship. She becomes entangled in one clumsy lie after another, two identities and the choice between two men.

F*ck de Liefde is a romantic comedy "with a bite" in which three crazy love stories come together. Lisa is divorcing Jack and is at the end of her wits. After a few attempts by Jack to get her back, Lisa's friends decide to take her on a trip to Curaçao. The first days on the sunny island are rough for Lisa, until she meets the charming world traveler Jim. The fickle Jack, in turn, plunges deep into the bachelor life and ends up in bed with the seductive Cindy. Bo, Cindy's sister, has been married to Said for 10 years. Said has lost his job, but keeps this secret from his wife, who becomes increasingly suspicious because of his mysterious behavior. Bo, on the other hand, is making a career and starting to spend more and more time with her attractive boss ... Who survives love?

Inspector Nick Cafmeyer seems to have it all - looks, brains and a successful career. But a dark cloud hangs over his life: since the age of nine, he has been haunted by the unsolved disappearance of his younger brother, Bjorn. Plettinckx, a known sex offender, was questioned but quickly released. Plettinckx lives close by and takes fiendish pleasure in harassing Nick. Then, when a disturbing case comes to light involving a missing nine-year-old, Nick heads a massive search which turns into a relentless manhunt.

Five friends from 'Maaskantje' are getting fired because of the economic crisis. They decide that they won't pay for anything anymore.

In this dreamlike film, a nameless father and his son, Aleksei, live together in an apartment in St. Petersburg. Aleksei's mother has died and consequently the two have a very close relationship. When Aleksei acquires a girlfriend, she refuses to take a back seat to his bond with his dad, and breaks up with him. Aleksei is also experiencing nightmares, dreading separation from his father to be a part of the military as his father was.

A man has been trained in a deadly form of hand-to-hand combat using ballistics and firearms. He is one of the few Americans who has perfected it, which makes him the CIA's best weapon against International Terrorism.

Agent 327 is investigating a clue that leads him to a shady barbershop in Amsterdam. Little does he know that he is being tailed by mercenary Boris Kloris.

Following the death of their parents, Harriet and her siblings must unpack their childhood fears as they prepare to sell their dragon-filled Oxfordshire home. Between the clutter and the boxes, the siblings find themselves haunted by the memories of their late parents: a dragon-obsessed father and an exacting mother, and the esoteric collections of objects they left behind.

A psychiatrist's adulterous past continues to haunt her and her husband after they move to India.

Viegeltje looks like a girl but has wings instead of arms. Bird watcher Warre finds her under brushwood and takes her home. Warre and his wife Tine decide to keep Viegeltje and raise her like an ordinary girl. But Viegeltje isn't an ordinary girl and she flies away. She wants to go to the South with the other birds. It becomes a long and adventurous journey.

When reed cutter Johan discovers the lifeless body of a girl on his land, he is overcome by an ambiguous sense of guilt. While taking care of his granddaughter, he sets out on a quest to track down evil.

Lily works as a checkout girl at the local supermarket. She becomes pregnant, but before the child is born, the black father is attacked by skinheads and killed. Following his death, she flees to the city, where she soon finds herself under the wings of a pimp, Ted. Escaping Ted, she commences a one-woman spree of thefts, culminating in running from the police and the press. In the end, Lily must make a choice between freedom, and her baby.