17/04/2008

Dutch cinemagoers can feast on an entire banquet of European films this week, including a much-anticipated new local production. The screen count of today’s European releases will outweigh that of its US counterparts, with 207 new screens for the Europeans against 77 for US-produced fare.

Dutch films are doing relatively well at the box office, with the two films currently playing, the erotic literary drama Zomerhitte (see news) and the comedy Alibi [+see also:
trailer
film profile], both with over €1.5m in receipts after four and nine weeks on release respectively.

They will be joined this week by the film adaptation of Dunya & Desie [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a popular TV series about a Moroccan girl and her Dutch best friend from director Dana Nechushtan. The film premiered in the Generation section of the Berlin Film Festival (see news) and will be released by Independent Films on 77 screens.

It is not the biggest European release of this week, however. That honour goes to another TV-series adaptation: Iginio Straffi’s Winx Club. The Italian computer-generated animation film will debut in a dubbed version on 109 screens, also through Independent Films.

For older viewers, there are also some delicious new speciality releases. A-Film will launch Woody Allen’s UK-France-US co-production Cassandra’s Dream [+see also:
trailer
film profile] on eight screens, while the newly formed Cinéart Netherlands (see news) will debut French César winner The Secret of the Grain [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hafsia Herzi
film profile] from Abdellatif Kechiche on six screens.

Also starting on six screens: the Kieslowskian drama Tricks [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrzej Jakimowski
interview: Tomasz Gąssowski
film profile] from Polish director Andrzej Jakimowski (through Filmmuseum), while the horror yarn REC [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
interview: Julio Fernández
film profile] from Spain’s Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza will debut on a single screen in The Hague through Paradiso Entertainment.

The remaining 86 screens are divided between 3 US productions: Dan in Real Life, Street Kings and The Ruins.