My favorite Dutch movies

Original Title: 'De Lift'

Directed by: Dick Maas

With: Huub Stapel

Plot: A lift begins displaying some erratic behavior, like trapping some party goers and nearly suffocating them, and decapitating a security guard. Felix, the technician from the lift company, can't find anything wrong with the circuitry...

Original Title: 'Ciske de Rat'

Directed by: Guido Pieters

Plot: 11 year old Amsterdam schoolboy Ciske, a scamp with a heart of gold, causes havoc in the classroom pouring ink over his teacher. Yet when a polio-crippled boy joins the class Ciske is one of the only children to befriend him and is bullied as a result. His mother works in a bar and Ciske helps out often late into the night - his father is at sea and his mother supplements her income with prostitution. Ciske also smolders with rage at life's injustices.

Original Title: 'Spoorloos'

Directed by: George Sluizer

Plot: Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia is abducted. After three years and no sign of Saskia, Rex begins receiving letters from the abductor.

Note: Golden Calf Winner Best Dutch movie of the year (1988)

Original Title: 'Amsterdamned'

Directed by: Dick Maas

With: Huub Stapel, Monique van de Ven

Plot: A mysterious diver hiding in Amsterdam's canal system embarks on a rampage of gruesome murders, terrifying city officials and leaving few clues for the city's best detective, who doesn't suspect that both his new girlfriend and twelve-year-old daughter may be closer than he is to finding the killer.

Original Title: 'De kleine blonde dood'

Directed by: Jean van de Velde

Plot: The poet Valentijn Boecke meets his former teacher Mieke. They have a short relation. After a while Mieke appears to be pregnant. Valentijn is through with Mieke and leaves her...

Note: Golden Calf Winner Best Dutch movie of the year (1993)

Original Title: 'Zusje'

Directed by: Robert Jan Westdijk

With: Kim van Kooten

Plot: After several years without contact, Martijn visits his sister Daantje, who just started to live on her own in Amsterdam. He tells her he is going to make a documentary from her life, and enters her home live with a video camera.

Note: Golden Calf Winner Best Dutch movie of the year (1996)

Original Title: 'Antonia'

Directed by: Marleen Gorris

Plot: A Dutch matron establishes and, for several generations, oversees a close-knit, matriarchal community where feminism and liberalism thrive.

Note: Oscar winner best foreign movie (1996)

Original Title: 'Karakter'

Directed by: Mike van Diem

Plot: Jacob Katadreuffe lives mute with his mother, has no contact with his father who only works against him and wants to become a lawyer, at all costs.

Note: Oscar winner best foreign movie (1998), Golden Calf Winner Best Dutch movie of the year (1997)

Original Title: 'Lek'

Directed by: Jean van de Velde

Plot: A rookie policeman is coerced into obtaining secret information from a childhood friend turned gangster.

Note: Golden Calf Winner Best Dutch movie of the year (2000)

Original Title: 'The Discovery of Heaven'

Directed by: Jeroen Krabbé

With: Stephen Fry, Jeroen Krabbé

Plot: God is disappointed with the human race and wants his stone tablets back. An angel is given the assignment and, with Gabriëls help, tries to manipulate several humans on earth to get his job done. But humans have a will of their own...

Original Title: 'Nynke'

Directed by: Pieter Verhoeff

Plot: Frisian-spoken costume drama about the turbulent marriage between a writer and a socialist politician.

Note: Golden Calf Winner Best Dutch movie of the year (2001)

Original Title: 'Minoes'

Directed by: Vincent Bal

With: Carice van Houten

Plot: A cat who turns into a young woman helps a journalist with his career.

Note: Golden Calf Winner Best Dutch movie of the year (2002)

Original Title: 'De Tweeling'

Directed by: Ben Sombogaart

Plot: It is an epic love story based on the Dutch bestseller by Tessa de Loo.The movie is about two little twin girls who tragically get separated. One goes to work on a farm, the other goes to live with rich relatives in The Netherlands.

Note: Golden Calf Winner Best Dutch movie of the year (2003)

Original Title: 'Phileine zegt sorry'

Directed by: Robert Jan Westdijk

With: Kim van Kooten

Plot: Phileine goes to New York to visit her boyfriend Max, after he went there for his career as an actor. When she gets there she suspects Max of cheating is on her.

Original Title: 'Interview'

Directed by: Theo van Gogh

Plot: Renowned journalist Pierre has to interview the most famous Dutch actress, Katja, against his wishes.

Original Title: 'Van God Los'

Directed by: Pieter Kuijpers

Plot: Two small town Dutch boys whose socially unnatural friendship is so close, they care nothing for human or divine rules and lose all grip on reality, sliding into violent crime.

Original Title: 'De passievrucht'

Directed by: Maarten Treurniet

With: Peter Paul Muller, Carice van Houten

Plot: It tells the story of a man who finds out that his son isn't really his son when a doctor tells him that he has been infertile during his entire life. Since his first wife, and the mother of their son, died nine years ago, he can't ask her who's the biological father. But consumed by anger and sadness, he decides to find out himself.

Original Title: 'De Dominee'

Directed by: Gerrard Verhage

With: Peter Paul Muller, Huub Stapel

Plot: In the world of the drugs business - where it's is all about money - friendship and loyalty is most important. That is what becomes the demise of gangster Klaas Bruinsma.

Original Title: 'Shouf shouf habibi!'

Directed by: Albert Ter Heerdt

Plot: When a relative gets Abdullah 'Ap' Bentarek an office job, he mess it up in his 1st single day and rejoins the friends in the street. Meanwhile his sister Leila refuses to be married off, and his kid brother Driss abuses father's ignorance of the Dutch language to pretend the school's complaints about him are compliments.

Original Title: '06/05'

Directed by: Theo van Gogh

Plot: A fictional version of the events that led to the assassination of the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn on May 6, 2002. The movie is based upon the book "The sixth of May" by Tomas Ross.

Note: Theo van Gogh was himself murdered by gunshot like Pim Fortuyn, for political reasons, before this movie was released theatrically.

Original Title: 'Simon'

Directed by: Eddy Terstall

Plot: This movie is about an unlikely friendship between 2 men. One of them is gay and polite, and the other is an outspoken, humorous heterosexual that has cancer, and might die soon. The movie then goes back and forth along some fourteen years, starting with the day these guys met.

Note: Golden Calf Winner Best Dutch movie of the year (2004)

Original Title: 'Knetter'

Directed by: Martin Koolhoven

With: Carice van Houten

Plot: Bonnie, a nine-year-old single child, is part of a family of three living in Holland. Her single mother, Lis, is bi-polar and at times spends days on end without even getting out of bed. Then there are other times when she will manically do wild acts, such as impromptu dancing in public. As a result, Bonnie's grandmother must hold the family together by doing all the cooking, etc. After her grandmother is killed by a car, Bonnie becomes the most responsible family member and struggles with preparing meals and getting her reluctant mother to take her medication.

Original Title: 'Het Schnitzelparadijs'

Directed by: Martin Koolhoven

Plot: A romantic comedy about the adventures of Nordip Doenia, a clever young Moroccan guy in The Netherlands. His parents destine him for great things, but Nordip clearly has different ideas. He takes up a simple job far below his level as a dishwasher in a big motel. There, he falls in love with Agnes, the niece of the motel owner. But Agnes faces the same parental pressure as Nordip: she is destined to take over the motel in the future, but she doesn't have ambitions for this. The love relationship between Nordip and Agnes is doomed to failure, unless Nordip can convince Agnes in going her own way, against her parent's wishes.

Original Title: 'Leef!'

Directed by: Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen

With: Monic Hendrickx, Jeroen Krabbé, Frank Lammers

Plot: Anna is a vital woman who is married and has two daughters. She picks up her old passion of writing again after frequent requests by a colleague and a friend, but she had not foreseen the consequences of family and friends reading her stories...

Original Title: 'Kruistocht in spijkerbroek'

Directed by: Ben Sombogaart

With: Emily Watson

Plot: The Fifteen year old Dolf uses a prototype time machine and gets stuck in the Dark Ages. He gets struck down by bandits, but is saved by the beautiful and tough Jenne. She is part of a children's crusade.

Note: Golden Calf Winner Best Dutch movie of the year (2007)

Original Title: 'Ik omhels je met 1000 armen'

Directed by: Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen

With: Carice van Houten

Plot: Rising novelist Giph has a hot girlfriend, doctor and model Samarinde. His crude, domineering and progressive mother Ria's suffering an incurable disease. Her inevitably ensuing death is brought forward with euthanasia. Giph is struggling to handle this situation.

Original Title: 'Nachtrit'

Directed by: Dana Nechushtan

Plot: Dennis is a taxi driver trying to start out his own company. One day, he gets the opportunity to buy a scarce and expensive but lucrative license.

Original Title: 'Alles is liefde'

Directed by: Joram Lürsen

With: Carice van Houten, Peter Paul Muller

Plot: A Dutch take on 'Love actually'. Various love stories are intertwined to create a romantic mozaic.

Note: Golden Calf Winner Best Dutch movie of the year (2008)

Original Title: 'Bride Flight'

Directed by: Ben Sombogaart

With: Rutger Hauer

Plot: The story of the 3 women on the KLM flight that won the 1953 Air Race from London to Christchurch, New Zealand. They all get involved, in some way or another, with the same man who was also on this plane.

Original Title: 'TBS'

Directed by: Pieter Kuijpers

Plot: Johan, convicted for killing his own father and sister, escapes from a TBS clinic (a criminal hospital in the Netherlands) and tracks down his mother in order to prove his innocence.

Original Title: 'Oorlogswinter'

Directed by: Martin Koolhoven

Plot: Near the end of World War II, 14-year-old Michiel becomes involved with the Resistance after coming to the aid of a wounded British soldier. With the conflict coming to an end, Michiel comes of age and learns of the stark difference between adventure fantasy and the ugly realities of war.

Original Title: 'Komt een vrouw bij de dokter'

Directed by: Reinout Oerlemans

With: Carice van Houten

Plot: Stijn and Carmen have everything: They are young, successful and wealthy. They live a perfect live in Amsterdam and move to Amstelveen when they have a child, Luna. Then the world collapses as Carmen is diagnosed with breast cancer.

Original Title: 'De Storm'

Directed by: Ben Sombogaart

Plot: A fictional story within the historical context of the disastrous flood that engulfed the Dutch coastal province of Zeeland in 1953. When their farmhouse is destroyed by the flood, teenage mother Julia gets separated from her baby boy, whom she kept hidden in a box. She is saved from drowning by a young air force lieutenant, who agrees to go help looking for Julia's little son. A near-hopeless quest ensues.

Original Title: 'Terug naar de kust'

Directed by: Will Koopman

With: Linda de Mol

Plot: Single mother Maria starts to receive anonymous death threats. Together with her children, she flees to her former parental home, where her older sister Ans now lives. During those cold winter days in the secluded seaside house she is confronted with her traumatic childhood memories. But as the people close to her begin to question her state of mind, her assailant closes in.

Original Title: 'De gelukkige huisvrouw'

Directed by: Antoinette Beumer

With: Carice van Houten

Plot: Lea is an immaculate 30-something wife whose husband's job in real estate allows her an enviably glossy lifestyle. The word 'emancipation' simply isn't in her vocabulary and as long as the money rolls in, all is rosy. So, when Harry Jr. arrives, she is a little traumatized at having to swap canapés for nappies.

Original Title: 'Loft'

Directed by: Antoinette Beumer

With: Fedja van Huêt, Barry Atsma, Jeroen van Koningsbrugge, Anna Drijver, Kim van Kooten, Katja Herbers

Plot: Five best friends, all married, decide to share a loft apartment.

Original Title: 'De Heineken ontvoering'

Directed by: Maarten Treurniet

With: Rutger Hauer

Plot: A bold, amateur kidnapping goes wildly awry in this fictionalized account of beer magnate Freddy Heineken's 1983 abduction, which would go on to become one of The Netherlands' most infamous crimes.

Original Title: 'Wat zien ik'

Directed by: Paul Verhoeven

Plot: Blonde Greet is an experienced, but kind hearted, prostitute in the Red Light District of Amsterdam. Her friend Nel lives on the second floor of her house, and is explored and abused by her pimp. When Greet meets the married Piet, they feel a great attraction for each other, and Nel decides to find a boyfriend and become a straight woman.

Original Title: 'Turks fruit'

Directed by: Paul Verhoeven

With: Rutger Hauer, Monique van de Ven

Plot: this movie stars Rutger Hauer as a gifted Dutch sculptor who has a stormy, erotic, and star-crossed romance with a beautiful young girl.

Note: It has been the most successful Dutch movies for already 37 years (3.338.000 tickets sold).

Original Title: 'Keetje Tippel'

Directed by: Paul Verhoeven

With: Monique van de Ven, Rutger Hauer

Plot: The young girl Keetje moves to Amsterdam in 1881 with her impoverished family, and is led into prostitution in order to survive. In the process she sees the corrupting influence of money.

Original Title: 'Soldaat van Oranje'

Directed by: Paul Verhoeven

With: Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbé

Plot: This film depicts World War II through the eyes of several Dutch students. It follows them through the beginning of the war, the Nazi occupation and the liberation.

Original Title: 'Spetters'

Directed by: Paul Verhoeven

With: Renée Stoutendijk, Jeroen Krabbé, Rutger Hauer

Plot: It follows the lives of three young men who are amateur dirt-bike motorcycle racers. They each fall in love with a young woman who, with her brother, sells French fries and hot dogs at the races. She wants out of the business and away from her brother. The motocross racers want to make their marks as professional racers, like their hero, played by Rutger Hauer.

Original Title: 'De vierde man'

Directed by: Paul Verhoeven

With: Jeroen Krabbé, Renée Stoutendijk

Plot: A man who has been having visions of an impending danger begins an affair with a woman who may lead him to his doom.

Original Title: 'Zwartboek'

Directed by: Paul Verhoeven

With: Carice van Houten

Plot: In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance.

Note: Golden Calf Winner Best Dutch movie of the year (2006)

Original Title: 'Abel'

Directed by: Alex van Warmerdam

With: Alex van Warmerdam, Annet Malherbe, Henri Garcin

Plot: An extremely weird comedy revolving around the life of 31- year-old Abel, who has never left home (literally). After failing with doctors and psychiatrists, Abel's father Victor brings home Christine, a friend, in an attempt to teach Abel basic social skills. But Victor's wife Duif accuses him of having an affair, and in the ensuing row Abel is thrown out into the street. But help is at hand when he runs into kind-hearted stripper Zus - whose show Victor is obsessed with...

Original Title: 'De noorderlingen'

Directed by: Alex van Warmerdam

With: Jack Wouterse, Alex van Warmerdam, Annet Malherbe, Henri Garcin, Theo van Gogh

Plot: In a small village, people's lives intersect frequently and in unexpected ways. Plagge, a postal worker who spies on other locals by reading their mail. His breaches of privacy expose the numerous secrets that the people in town keep.

Original Title: 'De jurk'

Directed by: Alex van Warmerdam

With: Alex van Warmerdam, Annet Malherbe, Henri Garcin, Peter Blok, Jack Wouterse, Ricky Koole, Susan Visser, Mimoun Oaïssa

Plot: The Dress is a tale filled with sex, violence, comedy and drama as it follows the life of a dress. Conceived under a cloud of frustration and despair, the dress serves as the hub in a great wheel of misfortune in an extraordinary sequence of events that envelopes both the dress and those fatefully drawn into its universe. An aloof artist, a virginal school girl, an unfulfilled maid, a lowly train conductor and a broken business executive, all become involuntary players in a macabre game of tag. No one who comes in contact with the dress can escape its dramatic, shocking and hilarious consequences.

Original Title: 'Kleine Teun'

Directed by: Alex van Warmerdam

With: Alex van Warmerdam, Annet Malherbe

Plot: Farmer Brand can't read and he is quite happy with that. His wife, Keet, who has to read him all the subtitles on the television, isn't. She decides to hire a teacher for him. This is a beautiful young woman, called Lena. Brand falls in love with her. To his puzzlement and dismay Keet encourages him, because as she says she doesn't want a husband with another woman in his head.

Original Title: 'Grimm'

Directed by: Alex van Warmerdam

With: Halina Reijn, Annet Malherbe, Frank Lammers, Henri Garcin

Plot: One winter's day Jacob and his sister Marie are left behind in the woods by their unemployed father. In his coat Jacob finds a note from his mother urging them to go to their uncle in Spain. They arrive in Spain only to find that their uncle has died. Marie meets Diego, a rich surgeon, and falls in love with him.

Original Title: 'Ober'

Directed by: Alex van Warmerdam

With: Alex van Warmerdam, Thekla Reuten

Plot: Edgar is a waiter in a mediocre restaurant, where clients and even his mistress prove abusive, while his sick wife and criminal neighbors are no better. How bad it gets is a matter of discussion.