09/02/2006

The exotic dancer and alleged WWI double spy Mata Hari has fuelled the imagination of filmmakers ever since her dramatic death at the hands of a French firing squad in 1917. Several German silent films were made about her and women from Greta Garbo to Sylvia Kristel have donned her skimpy costumes to dance and romance both French and German officers out of information. Director Peter Delpeut is currently preparing the first Dutch film about the most famous Dutchwoman of all time, called The Last Love of Mata Hari.

The project set up at Feature Partners is currently lobbying for French and Luxembourg co-producers, with the aim of filming The Last Love of Mata Hari in French. The budget is estimated at €2.5m and shooting should be underway next year. Delpeut has confirmed that the coveted role of Mata Hari has gone to triple Best Actress Golden Calf-winner and former Shooting Star Monic Hendrickx, who last graced the screens as a spaced-out hippie mother in Simone van Dusseldorp’s Diep.

Delpeut says that, “The story [we tell] is based on facts, though there is little evidence beyond a couple of letters from that time. It has never actually been confirmed that Mata Hari did spy for the Germans or the French”. The script was written by Céline Linssen and focuses on the last months of Mata Hari (a pseudonym of the Frisian-Javanese Margaretha Zelle) and her relationship with the nun Leonide, who guarded her after her imprisonment by the French. The nun tries to make the courtesan come to terms with her impending death, whilst Mata Hari teaches the nun a thing or two about her own sexuality.