Discoveries from Netherlands World Cinema

A portrait of astronaut Wubbo Ockels, a passionate man who did everything he could to create a sustainable world, but who also paid a price for it.

Bassie & Adriaan traveled throughout the Netherlands and Belgium for years with their Lachspektakelshow (Laughter Spectacular Show). There, they entertained millions of children with their cheerful songs and fun scenes.

After her parents passed, Janna took over the family farm as well as the care of her disabled brother. Her role as a care taker takes a toll on Janna. Will she ever be able to leave her nest?

Stan has been friends with Gijs for a while. He slowly comes to realize that their friendship might not be what it used to be. The way Gijs treats him is upsetting and Stan finally decides to stand up for himself.

Every year, Sinterklaas's Club works tirelessly to make all the wishes from the mountains of wish lists come true. But some, unfortunately, are impossible to fulfill. When a storm at sea forces the steamboat to take a different route to the Netherlands, Sinterklaas suddenly sees an opportunity to make a wish from the pile of unfulfillable wishes come true. Sara has been asking for a real hug from Sinterklaas for years, but she lives far away… all the way in Austria. And now, that's right on the new route! The boat sets course for the White Mountains in Austria. There, Test, Coole, Dans, and the other Pieten see snow for the first time in their lives and all have snowy adventures. The whole village is in a festive mood, and Sara is overjoyed. But then Ozosnel suddenly disappears, and Sinterklaas can't go any further without his horse. Is there still a Christmas Eve in the Netherlands when Sinterklaas's Club is stuck in the snow?

When walking in the park, a little girl comes across a dead bird. She decides to give the expired animal a dignified funeral - in a black patent leather shoe that also lies in the park.

The documentary focuses on the struggles of those who survived the long siege by German forces during World War II (from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944). The three million inhabitants of Leningrad (now renamed St Petersburg) suffered extremes of starvation and deprivation.

Referring to Newton’s theory of colour and light, Searching for White uses 16mm film to mix colours. We see a white wall in an industrial building, on which a three-metre-high (imperfect) colour wheel has been painted. Slowly, the image begins to tilt and rotate around its axis. This acceleration almost mixes the colours of the wheel, creating green. As it rotates, a black spot appears in the image. Mater begins to paint the wheel and changes the colours one by one, shifting the wheel from green to blue and eventually, after accelerating, to almost white.

Documentary about WWII propaganda cartoons.

An Italian car salesman wants to impress the woman of his dreams, but he gets entangled in his own web of lies.

Theatre film based on the debut novel of french writer Gustave Flaubert. Performances by Maaike Neuville and Koen De Sutter at KVS, Brussels.

Every Sunday night, a small New York restaurant turns into a piece of Cuba. The tables are set aside to give way to a dance floor, which welcomes the immense fervor of Cuban exiles through the rumba.

An old librarian, Professor Columbus, wants to go to the sea once in his lifetime. So he buys a big ship and takes a boat trip across the North Sea to London, accompanied by a bunch of stoned hippies, and chased by the police.

A white man bumps into a black man while jogging, and accuses him of having stolen his wallet.

Sully Johnson lives as an orphan with his sister Nicole. To give her a better life, he chooses to abandon his dangerous and criminal activities and create a better environment for his last surviving family member.

An exploration of the profound journey of grief and how grieving can lead to transformation, through the eyes of five women who work with the theme of grief. Each of them dedicates her life to helping others navigate the turbulent waters of personal and ecological grief using ancient and contemporary rituals.

As death approaches, a lonely man sends his final words into space, hoping alien life will one day understand the quiet wonder of being human.

When Cedric Venzi is released from prison after 3 years, he returns to his old hood in Ostend. Completely broke, he has no other choice then to start dealing drugs again with his old friends, but things quickly go from bad to worse. A talent scout from a local recording company discovers Venzi at a street rap battle. Cedric gets the opportunity for something better, but things will never be easy if you come from the gutter. Shot on zero budget.

A man attempts to reclaim the life that prison took from him but his dark past threatens to ruin everything.

Jakob Yzermans is an American salesman looking for his roots in Rotterdam. He thinks his father (Hendrik Yzermans) has left Holland with the money he took from his collegues. Jakob is trying to get the money together to repay the money. While doing so he encounters more and more problems.

Herman and Marie, a couple in their fifties, arrive in Istanbul to pick up the luggage of their deceased son. In his backpack. Herman discovers a logbook of their son's trip through Turkey. Herman decides to reconstruct his son's last journey, to see what he has seen. He drags along his wife into a, what he believes to be, cathartic venture.

Psychological drama about a seemingly happy couple who model themselves on everything television and lifestyle magazines prescribe for them. They appear content with their lives, until the cosmetics they have used to coat their illusory existence begin to crack. And then everything that seems self-evident begins to shift.

Richard has an unusual fantasy: he gets sexually aroused by the idea of being devoured by an animal. In a contact add he gets to know Max and with that encounter the chance of making his fantasy real. But does he dare?

Two Dutch lawyers, Michiel Pestman and Victor Koppe, travel to Cambodia in 2011 to defend Nuon Chea in an international tribunal. Nuon Chea, also known as Brother No. 2, was the second man after Pol Pot in the Khmer Rouge regime. He is being charged with mass murder and crimes against humanity. For four years, the documentary follows the lawyers in their attempt to give this man a fair trial, but the UN tribunal is beset by local interests and a government which consists partly of other former members of the Khmer Rouge who would really like all of the blame to rest solely on the defendant. What should've been the crowning achievement in the careers of the lawyers turns out very different.

A castaway on a desert island loses himself in his imagination.

Sigrid Koetse, award-winning actor and grande dame of Dutch theater, lived most of her life in the public eye and was always surrounded by a crowd of admirers. With this short documentary, filmmaker Wytse Koetse shows how his aunt spends her days nowadays, lonely in her Amsterdam home.

The bad wolf Baltimoor is out for revenge. The three little pigs outsmarted him. He orders his three sons, Wuppert, Waldo and Willy, to catch the daughters of the third piglet. The one who succeeds in this will receive the wolf's horn as a reward.

In 2016 the largest and most modern prison in the Netherlands, Judicial Complex Zaanstad, opens its doors. New architecture and a new professional modus operandi enhance the efficiency of the complex and increase the responsibility for prisoners and guards. The demanding and versatile work of guards and prison officials gives us an insight into modern prison practices.

Tv movie about writer Jan Arends loosely based on his life and writings

Television adaptation of the Dutch musical based on the Dutch novel from 1860 by Multatuli. Max Havelaar tries to battle against the corrupt government system of the Dutch colony in Java.

A young aggressive man from a small town goes to Amsterdam. He attacks several people, finds a girlfriend and takes her back home. Because of his misbehavior, this friendship ends soon afterwards.

When Marius retires, his son drops his father in a home for the elderly. Marius has too much energy to accept the rules of the institute's management. Marius and other oldies lock horns with management.

A pianist drives around a forest landscape, wandering in search of her way. A way to let go of memories. Letting go of the woman of her memories. Like a wind, they blow through her mind, mingling and enriching the music that propels her along her path. Her longing on the tip of her tongue and the end point of the journey.

Random innocent victims are hunted and butchered in this true love letter to the horror movies of yesteryear, while pure hatred is used to put a permanent stop to these psychopaths. Ancient rites and slaughter inevitably intersect. Whatever the outcome, no flesh will be spared.

Documentary about the Dutch film director Adriaan Ditvoorst.

In this film Bert Haanstra shows how important the formation of national parks is for the protection of nature.

BEPPIE is a moving and disarming portrait of an Amsterdam street urchin. Van der Keuken once described her as follows: 'She was ten years old and the joy of the Achtergracht, where I was living at the time. An Amsterdam child, sweet and crooked as a corkscrew.' He films her while she skims the city with some friends and knocks at strangers' doors. Her family has nine children and is not well off. In those days, a visit to the De Miranda swimming pool cost a quarter, but only ten cents if the weather was bad. At school, Beppie gets a poor mark because she is too boisterous, but when the whole class rattles off the multiplication tables, she joins in at the top of her voice. All of TV-watching Holland was wildly enthusiastic about this portrait, with which Van der Keuken even made the front page of the national newspaper De Telegraaf.

"The love between Thomas and Emma is in decline. Thomas is gripped by the fear of losing her when Emma decides to go abroad for a few months. His inability to deal with this takes him to a dark place, far removed from reality until on the evening of her farewell party he threatens to screw up their relationship." (KeyFilm, 2012)

Twin brothers Sietse and Hielke watch their beloved boat being seized due to pollution. Meanwhile multiple animals are found dead at a care farm. The twins start a search for the suspects.

Around 1860 in the Kempen region. Baas Gansendonck, the landlord of a village inn, feels far superior to the farmers and imagines himself to be of noble birth. His daughter Liza has always remained simple, but suddenly he finds her fiancé Karel, the brewer's son, beneath her. Gansendonck tries to marry his daughter to the baron, but after a fight to save Liza's honor, Karel ends up in prison. Meanwhile, Liza wastes away with grief.

Short, heartfelt comics that focus on the artist's personal life and humorously depict serious topics. The comics often break taboos and address topics rarely discussed on social media: depression, racism, sexism, and gender issues. The enormous fan base of these artists demonstrates that many people feel connected to their drawings. Director Stephane Kaas portrays several of these young artists from around the world.

The coming of age of Bram, a young boy navigating growing up with his best friend amidst complex feelings and sexual discovery.

Thirty-something Nora has had a tough year. When she keeps running into the same man, she realizes it won't get any better soon.

In a small, semi-utopian city, all the streets are named after poets. When war begins, new neighbourhoods emerge to accommodate the refugees. Now, the streets are named after soldiers.

The hesitation of a couple in love about whether or not to make love leads to an unfortunate coincidence of events.

Anyone who grows up in Sandton spends a lot of time hanging out at pools and drug-filled parties – for this part of Johannesburg is the richest spot in the whole of Africa. Necktie Youth portrays this first post-apartheid gilded youth in striking black-and-white. Soft colours are reserved for their childhood memories of the early years of the rainbow nation. White 19-year-old Emily did not understand the codes of their set and could not take the pace of the ever-changing, fleeting liaisons, says the super cool, black and privileged September when he tries to explain to a TV reporter why Emily hung herself in her parents’ garden. She even positioned her camera in such a way that her suicide could be streamed live.

Young actor Amir yearns for success, yet his impatience steers him into a nightmare.

Young Fatima holds a secret that could change her fate; she must place her trust in a doctor to make a tough decision between cultural tradition and medical ethics.