19/09/2014 - Between Venice, Toronto and the upcoming Netherlands Film Festivals, Dutch films seem to be everywhere

The Dutch film Between 10 and 12 [+see also:
trailer
interview: Peter Hoogendoorn
film profile], directed by Peter Hoogendoorn, and starring Nasrdin Dchar, Raymond Thiry and Ko Zandvliet, kicked off an autumnal avalanche of new Dutch movies when it premiered in the Venice Days section of the Venice Film Festival earlier this month. The film follows two police offers and a family that receives some terrible news. It is Hoogendoorn’s first feature, and was produced by Keren Cogan Films and Phanta Film.

At the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), another five Dutch films had their premieres, which seems like some kind of record for the festival where normally only one, or maybe two, Dutch majority productions premiere, despite the fact that the country’s national festival, the Netherlands Film Festival, always takes place just after TIFF, so new films are always readily available.

Between 10 and 12 stars Dchar, who won the Dutch Oscar equivalent, the Golden Calf, for his role in the 2011 road movie Rabat [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and also plays the lead in The Intruder [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a first feature by Shariff Korver in which he plays a Dutch-Moroccan undercover agent who has to infiltrate a drugs ring run by a Moroccan family. The movie was produced by Lemming Film.

Jan-Willem van Ewijk’s second feature, Atlantic. [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jan-Willem van Ewijk
film profile], also premiered at TIFF and has a Moroccan connection: it tells the story of a Moroccan surfing fanatic, played by Fettah Lamara, who dreams of crossing the ocean to get to Europe. Augustus Productions produced the film, while Fortissimo handles world sales.

A third Dutch world premiere at TIFF was Frailer, a fiction-documentary hybrid that is a continuation of sorts of director Mijke de Jong’s earlier Frail. It tells the story of four sisters who rally together after it is discovered that one of them has cancer. It was produced by Topkapi Film.

The children’s movie Secrets of War [+see also:
trailer
film profile] had its international premiere in the TIFF Kids section. Dennis Bots’ film, another adaptation of a popular young-adult novel by Jacques Vriens, is set during WWII and opened in the Netherlands in July. It was produced by Rinkel Film and Bijker Film & TV. It is sold by Sola Media.

The documentary Episode of the Sea also celebrated its premiere at TIFF. The black-and-white film by Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan, who also produced, looks at a Dutch fishing community over a two-year period.

The Intruder, Frailer and Secrets of War will also screen at the upcoming Netherlands Film Festival, which will kick off on 24 September in Utrecht. Some films will have their world premiere at the festival, including Joram Lürsen’s thriller Reckless, which will open the event; Aanmodderfakker, the second feature by Michiel ten Horn, who directed the Toronto hit The Deflowering of Eva van End [+see also:
film review
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interview: Michiel Ten Horn
film profile] from two years ago; and Tallulah Schwab’s highly anticipated Confetti Harvest [+see also:
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film profile], based on a popular novel.