Tag Archives: Netherlands

Brozer / Frailer (2014) Mijke de Jong, Marnie Blok, Lieneke le Roux, Leonoor Pauw, Drama

Brozer AKA Frailer (2014)
Frailer tells the story of an actress playing a part that reflects her real life story. Whilst playing a woman dying of cancer, Muis her doctor tells her she has not much more time left. She will die soon. The film follows the transition of her and her film sisters, shifting from their characters to who they really are, actresses dealing with their friend upcoming death. We watch Leonoor become physically frailer but mentally stronger as she is slowly accepting her faith. Whilst ending the film, she leaves her film sisters, her real life husband and children but also the viewer, behind forever.
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Jongens / Boys (2014) Mischa Kamp, Gijs Blom, Ko Zandvliet, Jonas Smulders, Drama, Romance

Jongens AKA Boys (2014)
BOYS tells the story of Sieger, a sporty, rather quiet 15-year-old boy who discovers love during the summer holidays. Sieger is training in the new athletics team for the national relay championships and meets the intriguing and unpredictable Marc. The friendship that develops seems nothing out of the ordinary, but Sieger secretly harbours stronger feelings for Marc. He engages in a lonely struggle with himself when it emerges that Marc is also in love with him. With his best friend Stef, Sieger discovers a motocross track outside the village. Events soon take on a momentum of their own as Sieger quickly becomes involved with Jessica. At last, he counts for something in the eyes of his tough older brother Eddy, who is secretly using the track to tear around on a moped. Sieger keeps quiet about this to his father, who often clashes with the rebellious Eddy since their mother’s death. Sieger tries to make peace between the two, but his mind is elsewhere, as he finds it increasingly …
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Zwartboek / Black Book (2006) Paul Verhoeven, Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Drama, Thriller, War

Zwartboek (2006)
Israel 1956. Rachel, a Jew, rather unexpectedly meets an old friend at the kibbutz where she is working as a teacher. It brings back memories of her experiences in The Netherlands during the war, memories of betrayal. September 1944. Rachel is in trouble when her hiding place is bombed by allied troops. She gets in contact with a man from the resistance and joins a group of Jews who are to be smuggled across the Biesbosch by boat to the freed South Netherlands. Germans from a patrol boat murder them all however. Only Rachel is able to escape. She is rescued by a resistance group under the leadership of Gerben Kuipers. When Kuipers’ son is captured after trying to smuggle weapons, he asks Rachel to seduce SS-hauptsturmführer Ludwig Müntze. Soon she will find out the attack in the Biesbosch wasn’t a coincidence.
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Rembrandt’s J’Accuse…! (2008) Peter Greenaway, Martin Freeman, Eva Birthistle, Jodhi May, Documentary, Mystery

Rembrandt's J'Accuse...! (2008)
An ‘essayistic’ documentary in which Greenaway’s fierce criticism of today’s visual illiteracy is argued by means of a forensic search of Rembrandt’s Nightwatch. Greenaway explains the background, the context, the conspiracy, the murder and the motives of all its thirty-four painted characters who have conspired to kill for their combined self-advantage. Greenaway leads us through Rembrandt’s paintings into seventeenth-century Amsterdam. He paints a world that is democratic in principle, but is almost entirely ruled by twelve families. The notion exists of these regents as charitable and compassionate entities. However, reality was different.
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Oorlogswinter / Winter in Wartime (2008) Martin Koolhoven

Oorlogswinter (2008)
Near the end of World War II, 14-year-old Michiel becomes involved with the Resistance after coming to the aid of a wounded British soldier. With the conflict coming to an end, Michiel comes of age and learns of the stark difference between adventure fantasy and the ugly realities of war.
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Abrir puertas y ventanas / Open Doors, Open Windows (2011) Milagros Mumenthaler, María Canale, Martina Juncadella, Ailín Salas

Abrir puertas y ventanas (2011)
Buenos Aires at the end of summer. Marina, Sofia and Violeta are alone in the family home after their grandmother, who had brought them up, has died. They have to come to terms with her death, each in her own way. Marina concentrates on her studies while looking after the household, whereas Sofia becomes obsessed by her appearance and goes out with friends. As for Violeta, she wanders around between bedroom and sitting room where, from time to time, she receives an older man. Discord, laughter, meanness, gestures of affection determine the rhythm of this period of uncertainty, until one day in autumn Violeta disappears without warning…
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