No novel has captivated and moved millions of readers during the past few years like A Little Life by American author Hanya Yanagihara. Ivo van Hove adapted Yanagihara’s novel to theater and created a penetrating performance. Ramsey Nasr won the Louis d'Or (best male performance) for his portrayal of Jude.
When puberty hits the 14-year-old Sonny Kruger, he starts looking at his attractive classmate Coco in a different way. Too shy to ever stand a chance with her, he starts doubting his own masculinity. Sonny’s macho father Bero, his attractive sister Kimberly and bullying classmate Nigel, all contribute to his confusion and frustration. With the help of his best friend Ferdi and the things he sees in nature that inspire him, he eventually does have the courage to approach Coco.
Nine-year-old Lisa discovers her sinister new friend is the ghost of the dead twin of Lisa's mother. Then Lisa's father also begins to suspect his wife of hiding a terrible secret, resulting in deadly consequences…
The gentle Odin (15) is the son of Herman Brest, the front man of an extreme right-wing group. After a speech by Herman goes viral, the family receives serious threats and Odin gets into a fight with the popular Victor (16) at school. As a pariah at school and a promise in his father's increasingly aggressive group, Odin feels trapped between two worlds. He desperately clings to loyalty to his father, but his once so familiar world view slowly starts to falter.
A Dutch woman escapes the clutches of Islamic State with her three-year-old daughter. On the bus from the Turkish border town Adana to Istanbul, she finds it hard to trust her fellow travellers. What does this man want who comes to bum a cigarette? Or that nice lady in the toilet? Next, she arrives in Istanbul and another reality forces itself upon her.
In this worldwide bestseller, we watch four men over a period of more than thirty years: lawyer Jude, actor Willem, visual artist JB and architect Malcolm. The story is the history of their friendship, as they remain closely connected with each other during the rest of their lives. They develop their careers in the city where ambition and success are the indicators of a successful life: New York. Ivo van Hove adapts Hanya Yanagihara’s novel to theater and creates a penetrating performance.
The suffocating love between between a father and a son who, as modern outlaws, struggle to survive in the depleted and neglected southern Dutch province of Limburg.
In Kings of War, director Ivo van Hove focuses on political leadership. The original texts were retranslated by Rob Klinkenberg and then thoroughly adapted: the Hundred Years' War between England and France, and the Rose Wars between the houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne, which are emphatically present as a historical context in the original pieces, were referred to the background in the adaptation in order to accommodate a varied portrait of successive kings. As leaders in times of political instability and war, they show remarkable affinities with world leaders today.
It is election night. Oedipus is on the verge of a massive victory. The country has not known a leader for many years since Laius' death. The ambitions are great. Oedipus wants to create a future, create a new way of life. He also insists, if elected, that the investigation into the death of his predecessor is reopened. In the meanwhile, in the half-empty campaign headquarters, Oedipus is surprised by his family - mother, wife and children - with a dinner. An old incident is thereby brought up. Gradually, Oedipus discovers that his past is very different from what he has always thought. During his research, the pieces of the puzzle fall together. Oedipus tries to control his fate, but discovers that he has been seeing blind all along.
A girl lies dying in a hospital room. A priest wants to enter, but her doctor, Ruth Wolff, won't allow it. The incident brings her into such heavy external fire that the survival of her hospital is threatened. At the same time, a colleague takes advantage of the case to bend an internal appointment procedure to his will.
In Roman tragedies, Ivo van Hove and Jan Versweyveld have created a unique arena in which Shakespeare speaks about our time more than ever and the political game in all its facets.
If you pursued populism, cancel culture and hatred on social media to their extremes, perhaps you would get a weekly, crowd-pulling reality show in which viewers can vote for which compatriot must be executed — literally. This brazen thriller follows Salman Seegers, who starts working for the Sterfshow (Death Show) as a pathologist. It comes easy to him, until a candidate ends up on top of the Death List who is very dear to him.
Antwerp in the fifties. Robin de Hert grew up in a Catholic parochial environment; on the one hand there is his authoritarian father and the sadistic secretary of the Catholic boys technical school, on the other hand there are the 'Grieten' and the French teacher with whom Robin is getting a good band through a secret they share. If the secretary finds out about this secret, this has major implications for both the teacher and the students ...
Based on Ibsen, Simon Stone wrote and directed a grand family saga about the troublesome but inevitable coexistence of different generations under one roof. Maarten Heijmans received the Arlecchino (best male performance in a supporting role) for his portrayal of Sebastiaan.
Vincke and Verstuyft are one of the best detective teams of the Antwerp police force. When they are confronted with the disappearance of a top official and the murder of two prostitutes, the trail leads to the almost retired assassin Angelo Ledda. Since Ledda starts showing symptoms of Alzheimer's, it's getting more and more difficult to complete his contracts. When he has to murder a 12-year old call-girl, he refuses and becomes a target himself. While Vincke and Verstuyft are chasing him and counting the corpses, Ledda is taking care of his employers.
When Gerben Kooistra, a liberal from the north of Holland, is appointed as the new mayor of a small southern village he starts a battle against a big local criminal called ‘Grandpa’ Toontje. Gerben's mission is harder then he anticipated. Crime is everywhere in this seemingly innocent small town and his political mission slowly turns into a dangerous obsession.
Olaf, an engineering student, lives with his father Vincent. Once a renowned architect, now suffering from early Alzheimer’s disease. Olaf is struggling, because he wants to keep seeing Vincent as the man who knows everything. In the run-up to the birthday party Olaf organises for his dad, their surroundings grow darker; a concrete wall casts a shadow over their house from the garden and Vincent’s condition is deteriorating. Olaf will have to realise that living together in the present is more valuable than persistently clinging on to what used to be.
After an argument and fight with a wealthy one night stand in a posh hotel, young hustler Chris finds himself trapped inside. With nowhere to go and the cops closing in on the hotel fast, he wanders into "Suite 16" in a fit of despair. Inside, a handicapped and wheelchair bound Glover is held captive for the evening once discovered by Chris. However, things change the next day when Glover informs Chris that the woman he slept with is now dead; and that he surely will be sought out for her murder. Lonely and bored, Glover offers to shelter Chris for awhile while the cuts and bruises from the previous nights escapades have time to heal.
On the very eve of shooting his debut film, a harried young director struggles to balance fiction and reality as he spends one fever dream of a night searching for the inspiration that eludes him.
Nicky's whole world revolves around fitness, with the goal of getting bigger and stronger. By constantly monitoring his food consumption and weight, he seems to have his body and entire life under control. But when hidden childhood memories emerge, Nicky starts losing control and his body obsession sets off to an unhealthy direction.
A once-beloved puppet star of the 90s faces obscurity and crippling debt to a ruthless drug dealer. After being fired from his TV network, he hatches a desperate plan to reclaim his fame and save his life.
Ivo van Hove's direction of Les Damnés had its world premiere as the opening performance of the Festival d'Avignon. This theatrical adaptation, based on a film script by Italian film director Luchino Visconti, shows how a family of rich German industrialists is fatally corrupted by its collaboration with the Nazi party that has come to power. Family patriarch Baron Joachim resists and is liquidated. The struggle for the succession leads to an escalation of intrigues and manipulations, betrayal and murder.