Film Countries Archives: The Netherlands

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Two men sit on a planter in a city

To a Land Unknown

  Mahdi Fleifel

  United Kingdom, Palestine, France, Greece, Netherlands, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia     105 minutes

Synopsis

Displaced Palestinian cousins Chatila and Reda are stuck in Athens. They live in a crowded group home with other migrants, and steal and save what they can to pay for fake passports that will take them to Germany. When Reda relapses into his addictions and spends all their savings, Chatila devises what seems like a foolproof smuggling operation to earn the money back fast. Then things go terribly awry, and the cousins must concoct an even more sinister scheme in order to save themselves and their families back home.

With an intimate and naturalistic lens on the cousins’ bond and shared dream of a better life, To a Land Unknown is a tightly drawn thriller that presents an audacious, moving testament to the dire circumstances faced by migrants in purgatory.

 Arabic, Greek, English with subtitles

Content Advisory

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Geoff Arbourne, Mahdi Fleifel
  •   Mahdi Fleifel, Fyzal Boulifa, Jason McColgan
  •   Halim Sabbagh
  •   Thodoris Mihopoulos (GSC)
  •   Mahmood Bakri (Chatila), Aram Sabbagh (Reda), Angeliki Papoulia (Tatiana), Mohammad Alsurafa (Malik), Mouataz Alshalton (Abu Love), Mohammad Ghassan (Yasser), Monzer Reyahnah (Marwan)
  •   Nadah El Shazly
  •   Elisa Van Waeyenberge, François De Villers, Frank Barat, Sawsan Asfari
  •   Inside Out Films, Nakba Filmworks, Salaud Morisset, Salaud Morisset Deutschland, Homemade Films, Studio Ruba

Sponsors

With Support From

Logo: Chicago Palastine Film Festival - 128x100

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A freckled red-headed woman stands on a porch.

When the Light Breaks Ljósbrot

  Rúnar Rúnarsson

  Iceland, Netherlands, Croatia, France     82 minutes

Synopsis

Spanning one sunset to another, When the Light Breaks is a whisper-quiet rumination on love, beauty, and human perseverance in the face of disaster. Two lovers, Una and Diddi, look toward the horizon at the end of a long Icelandic summer day. Una, a passionate performance art student, dreams of the future, which begins with the two lovers announcing their well-kept secret relationship to their friends. Then a sudden, devastating tragedy befalls Reykjavík, and Una and her friends are forced to reckon with a broken new reality. Visionary director Rúnar Rúnarsson (Sparrows, 2015) deploys a haunting score while training his expressive, incisive camera on a talented young cast to create an intimate, hushed examination of loss and grief.

  

 Icelandic with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Heather Millard, Rúnar Rúnarsson
  •   Rúnar Rúnarsson
  •   Andri Steinn Guðjónsson
  •   Sophia Olsson FSF
  •   Elín Hall, Mikael Kaaber, Katla Njálsdóttir, Baldur Einarsson, Ágúst Wigum, Gunnar Hrafn Kristjánsson
  •   Jóhann Jóhannsson
  •   Þórður Jónsson, Lilja Ósk Snorradóttir, Claudia Hausfeld
  •   Compass Films, Halibut, Revolver Amsterdam, MP Film, Eaux Vives Productions, Jour2Fête
  •   https://www.thepartysales.com/movie/when-the-light-breaks/

Sponsors

International Competition Program Patron

Jacolyn and John Bucksbaum Family Foundation

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A woman looks over another womans shoulder, the second woman looks into a bucket.

All We Imagine As Light

  Payal Kapadia

  France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg     118 minutes

Synopsis

The light, the lives, and the textures of contemporary working-class Mumbai are explored and celebrated by writer/director Payal Kapadia, who won the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for her revelatory fiction feature debut.

Centering on two roommates who also work together in a city hospital—head nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and recent hire Anu (Divya Prabha)—plus their coworker, cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), Kapadia’s film alights on moments of connection and heartache, hope and disappointment. Prabha, her husband from an arranged marriage living in faraway Germany, is courted by a doctor at her hospital; Anu carries on a romance with a Muslim man, which she must keep a secret from her strict Hindu family; Parvaty finds herself dealing with a sudden eviction from her apartment.

Kapadia captures the bustle of the metropolis and the open-air tranquility of a seaside village with equal radiance, articulated by her superb actresses and by the camera with a lyrical naturalism that occasionally drifts into dreamlike incandescence. All We Imagine as Light is a soulful study of the transformative power of friendship and sisterhood, in all its complexities and richness.

 Malayalam, Hindi with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Thomas Hakim, Julien Graff
  •   Payal Kapadia
  •   Clément Pinteaux
  •   Ranabir Das
  •   Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon, Azees Nedumangad
  •   Petit Chaos, Chalk and Cheese, Arte France Cinéma, Baldr Film, Another Birth, Les Films Fauves, Pulpa Film

Sponsors

International Competition Program Patron

Jacolyn and John Bucksbaum Family Foundation

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Two men, bundled in hats and sweaters, sit back to back in a snowy landscape.

Alpha

  Jan-Willem van Ewijk

  Netherlands, Slovenia, Switzerland     100 minutes

Synopsis

In the wake of his mother’s death, Rein moves from the Netherlands to a ski town in the Swiss Alps. There, he is immersed in nature, leading a quiet life teaching snowboarding and befriending visiting skiers. Then his father comes to visit for the first time, rupturing Rein’s tranquil bubble with his domineering presence and heavy baggage from their shared past. When the two embark on a day of backcountry skiing, their tense, competitive rapport reaches a breaking point — until nature threatens to put their petty power struggle into perspective.

With stunning cinematography that captures the intimidating and immense grandeur of the Swiss Alps in winter, Alpha deftly explores the age-old battle of man vs. man vs. mountain. A fight for dominance hangs over this simmering family drama that morphs into a gripping adventure thriller.

 Dutch with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Frank Hoeve
  •   Jan-Willem van Ewijk
  •   Sander Vos, Eline Bakker
  •   Douwe Hennink
  •   Gijs Scholten van Aschat, Reinout Scholten van Aschat, Kaija Ledergerber, Pia Amofa, Daria Fuchs, Julien Genoud
  •   Ella van der Woude
  •   BALDR Film BV
  •   https://www.levelk.dk/films/alpha-10973

Sponsors

With Support From

Logo: See NL / Eye Filmmuseum 160x85logo: Consulate General of Switzerland 283x100

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A woman stands profile, a red wall and another woman out of focus behind her.

Armand

  Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel

  Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden     116 minutes

Synopsis

Defamed actress Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve, The Worst Person in the World) is abruptly called into a parent-teacher meeting at school. There, she is presented with scathing allegations about the behavior of her six-year-old son Armand. A tangled web of accusations between parents and faculty ensues, but who can say with certainty what really happened? As it becomes increasingly clear that much more is at stake, Elisabeth struggles to uncover the truth, and she is drawn into a chaotic fight for redemption where desire, madness, and obsession prevail.

Writer-director Halfdan Ullmann-Tøndel’s striking debut feature shrewdly unfurls with a keen observation of the quirks, pettiness, and rivalries inherent in human nature. Surrealist moments are dotted throughout, alternately providing flashpoints of comedy and consternation in this tension-filled, angst-fueled drama.

 Norwegian with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Andrea Berentsen Ottmar
  •   Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
  •   Robert Krantz
  •   Pål Ulvik Rokseth
  •   Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Thea Lambrechts Vaulen, Endre Hellestveit, Øystein Røger, Vera Veljovic, Assad Siddique, Patrice Demonière
  •   Ella van der Woude
  •   Dyveke Bjørkly Graver, Harald Fagerheim Bugge, Renate Reinsve
  •   Eye Eye Pictures, Kepler Film, One Two Films, Prolaps, Film i Väst