A married factory worker confronts his feelings as they bubble to the surface, two boxers fight for more than just keeps, a countryside coming out doesn't quite go to plan, while at the beach a boy makes an unreal discovery. Come and explore a thoroughly Dutch view on life and love. The 5 short films are: Brick [Steen] (2013); South of Heaven [Ten Zuiden van de Hemel] (2019); Lukas by the Sea [Lukas aan Zee] (2016); Dante vs. Mohammed Ali (2018); Beautiful Alexander [Mooie Alexander] (2019).
On a cold November day in 1983, beer magnate Alfred Heineken and his chauffeur Ab Doderer are abducted. What follows is the most infamous kidnapping case the Netherlands have ever known.
Four friends visit an outdoor festival. In the queue mass panic arises. Their relationships inform the way the friends react during the chaos. One of them is killed, the remaining friends are seen as a hero, a victim and a villain. But aren't the victims guilty as well. And isn't the bad-guy also a victim?
Two former lovers find themselves struggling for shared closure as one of them prepares to stage a play about the unspeakable tragedy that tore them apart decades ago.
Onno is a 26 year old boy full of questions, few answers and always a strange feeling.
When Claire returns from Burkina Faso, she is totally transformed and her girlfriends barely recognize her. Cheryl discovers Martin is cheating on her yet again and for her, this time it's the last straw: she files for divorce. Anouk, also unhappy with her love life, threatens to develop an eating disorder. Roelien, however, accepts Evert's wedding proposal. Then, a fatal and thoroughly bizarre accident transports the girlfriends to the snowy mountaintops of Austria...
Mark suffers from an intense form of self-hatred, which translates into neglectful, chilling and destructive behaviour. Mark lives in an equally destructive and hateful town. The only exception is his dying grandfather who lives in a hospice. In the hospice, Mark meets Lisa, a nurse. Mark’s behaviour frees her from her angelic yoke, but their bizarre bond slowly starts spinning out of control.
By alternating documentary with fiction, a portrait is drawn of Peter van Straaten, eminent draughtsman of political cartoons, the long-term Parool serial Agnes and a countless series of painfully comical sketches of everyday life. Interviews with Van Straaten - outside, at home and at work - smoothly merge with dramatised excerpts from Agnes (played by people like Renée Fokker, Pierre Bokma and Hans Kesting). 'That's me, dressed up as a woman', he says about this creation. The camera peeks over his shoulder when Van Straaten makes his black-and-white drawings with pen and ink. His humour is harsh; he draws people in all their spinelessness, sadness and dishonesty, with a remarkable eye to facial expressions and postures. Through his drawings and stories, he also talks about his personal experiences with alcohol, relationships, family, health and sex - and his lifelong love for birds in the open field.
Isa and her older brother Kars' parents change course and start a campsite in France. Isa and Kars feel like they are moving to Timbuktu and losing everything. Fortunately, they don't complain for long, because they soon make new friends. But while new friendships blossom, Camping Timbuktu runs into trouble. Not far from them, another campsite has opened, and its unsympathetic owner tries to damage Camping Timbuktu in every way possible. It even looks like the campsite will have to close... Will Isa and Kars manage to keep Timbuktu open?
On a desolate island, a suicidal sheep named Franck meets his fate…in the form of a quirky salesman named Victor, who offers him the gift of a lifetime. The gift is many lifetimes, actually, in many different worlds – each lasting just a few minutes. In the sequel to the pilot, Franck will find a new reason to live…in the form of a bewitching female adventurer named Tara, who awakens his long-lost lust for life. But can Franck keep up with her?
A young geologist ventures out into the vast tundra of northern Norway to finish his research on meteorite craters, only to get hopelessly lost in both the wilderness and his own mind.
After his mother passes away, Rein moves to a small village in the Alps to be immersed in nature, meditate and work as a snowboard teacher. His quiet bubble bursts when his extroverted father Gijs comes to visit. But it isn’t long before Rein has had enough.
Luuk, mid-twenties, has the time of his life until he is confronted with the rough reality off the beaten track of the backpacker trails. A raw road movie about three young friends looking for authenticity between the temples, partying backpackers and an illegal brothel in the South of America.
A disrupted family and a farm in decay. A sick brother and a hopeless future. In the road movie Malik, the paths of outsiders Ben and Amir cross, in extreme conditions and in an unexpected way.
Life Is Wonderful is a feel-good movie about love and longing. Best friends Mees and Boelie are spending a beautiful spring day in Amsterdam's Vondelpark. It seems like just a normal day, until they meet the young and attractive Panda. While the heat rises in the park, it's nowhere to be found between the long-married couple Etta and Ernst-Jan. Ernst-Jan suspects Etta of cheating and has his own ideas of how to catch her in the act. We also meet Rosa and Kees, old lovers whose paths cross after decades of not seeing each other. On this spring day in Amsterdam, their love starts blooming again.
In 1914, with Italy on the cusp of joining World War I, a group of foreign artists establishes a commune on the rural island of Capri, catching the attention of young Lucia, a local illiterate shepherdess who soon falls under their spell.
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.
Melissa is a 15-year-old girl who loves to dance. Her parents think she is taking classes in classical ballet, but once at the dance school she devotes herself to the hip-hop dance classes. Melissa is good friends with Jordi and he is very happy for Melissa when she is asked to dance in the music video of the famous rapper Brainpower. But because of bad influences, her life becomes a nightmare. Until her real friends decide to get her out of there.
A young Dutch soldier deployed to suppress post-WWII independence efforts in the Netherlands’ colony of Indonesia finds himself torn between duty and conscience when he joins an increasingly ruthless commander’s elite squad.
Jeffrey lives in a small Dutch town with his father and his girlfriend. He is about to become a dad. Working in the local brick factory, he gets to supervise newbee Kevin. When Kevin tries to become intimate with him, Jeffrey knocks him to the ground. Yet he can't seem to get Kevin out of his head and starts to question everything that he was once so sure of.
Judith works as an emergency doctor in Berlin. When she inherits a house in Austria from the family who gave her away as a child, her quest to solve the mystery of her origins turns into a nightmarish journey into the past and the dark places of her soul.
In 1969 Amsterdam, two idealistic roommates fall for the same free-spirited young woman, pulling them into a heady world of hippie dreams, artistic rebellion, and emotional turmoil that tests their friendship and the ideals of free love.
Paul, Julia and Lilly are a happy family, until Julia dies unexpectedly. For the sake of his daughter, Paul wants to function and suppress his grief. Lilly keeps challenging him with her imagination and her very own view of Mum's death.
Dolf a 15 year old boy is sent back in time by a timemachine. Accidentally he is sent back to the Middle Ages. He is rescued by children who are part of a childrens' crusade, on their way to rescue Jeruzalem. During the trip Dolf finds out the danger is not coming from outside the crusade, but from within.