Job Gosschalk Movies
A desperate criminal's delusions send him on a deadly chase in this Dutch thriller. Johan (Theo Maassen) is serving time for murder and sexual assault, but is convinced that he would go free if his mother would appeal to the parole board on his behalf. However, another hearing comes and goes without Johan being released, so he breaks out of prison and sets out to find his mom. Johan kills his grandmother when she refuses to tell him where mother can be found, and on the run from authorities he takes a hostage, a pretty teenage girl named Tessa (Lisa Smit). Despite her initial fears, Tessa begins to feel sympathetic towards Johan, but when a meeting with his mother takes a turn for the worse, Tessa is shocked into awareness of how dangerous her situation really is. TBS (aka Nothing To Lose) was screened in competition at the 2008 Rotterdam Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Theo Maassen, Lisa Smit, (more)
- 2007
The fatal shooting of a Moroccan youth by a racist police officer finds simmering tensions between ethic Dutch and a rapidly expanding Moroccan-heritage minority bubbling over into a boil in director Albert ter Heerdt's more serious-minded follow up to 2004's Shouf shouf habibi!. When veteran policeman Frank (Marcel Musters) and his Moroccan-Dutch partner Aaliyah (Maryham Hassouni) receive word of a potential break-in at a local youth center, they arrive on the scene to find two teenagers crouched behind a dumpster. When one of the teens panics and leaps out from behind the dumpster brandishing what appears to be a handgun, racist cop Frank immediately opens fire. Now Moroccan teen Redouan (Iliass Ojja) is dead, but his friend Karim (Ilias Addab) somehow managed to escape without injury. As the community goes into an uproar over the senseless killing, Aaliyah struggles to discern whether her partner's blatant racism played into his split-second decision to use deadly force in the heat of the moment. Out in the streets, Karim and the authority-weary locals openly advocate violent protest while others such as Redouan's level headed older brother Said (Mimoun Oaissa), the owner of a popular youth boxing gym, urges everyone to wait and see what becomes of the case. Later, when Said is accused of being a traitor to his own people, he begins to grow uncomfortable in his relationship with his white girlfriend (Chantel Janzen). Meanwhile, Aaliyah's fiancée Marouan (Mohammed Chaara) is derided by his future father-in-law for opting to join the Dutch Army, and local filmmaker Woulter (Roeland Fernhout) ventures out into the streets with girlfriend Kim (Hadewych Minis) to conduct research for an upcoming movie about the immigrant experience in Denmark. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mimoun Oaissa, Maryam Hassouni, (more)
Filmmaker Paul Verhoeven returned to the Netherlands after more than twenty years of success in Hollywood to direct this epic-scale war drama based on a true story. Rachel Steinn (Carice van Houten) is a beautiful Jewish woman living in German-occupied Holland during late 1944. Her family members - who have been falsely promised safe passage to Belgium (their names recorded in the 'black book' of the title) are instead robbed and slaughtered by the Germans on a premeditated basis; Rachel herself manages to escape by diving into the water and swimming away. She narrowly avoids capture, then joins the local resistance movement. With her hair dyed blonde, Rachel can easily pass for Aryan, and when the leader of the Dutch resistance movement learns his son has been captured by Axis forces, Rachel is asked to use her feminine charms to persuade a German commander to arrange for the boy's release. Rachel soon finds herself caught up in a dangerous double life as she becomes a sexual plaything for the Nazis while attempting to bring down their evil empire as a spy. Zwartboek was written by Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman, who collaborated on the 1977 international success Soldier of Orange. Zwartboek received its world premier at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, (more)
- 2001
Two brothers who haven't spoken in years discover there are a great many things they don't know about each other in this dark drama. Luc (Jaap Spijkers) and his wife Mieke (Camilla Siegertsz) live in the Netherlands, where they were born and raised. Fifteen years before, Luc's brother Ad (Jack Wouterse) mysteriously disappeared, and no one has heard from him since, but one day Luc gets a surprising phone call informing him that Ad is alive and well and living in Belgium. Luc and Mieke quickly travel to Belgium to see Ad, though Mieke has some misgivings, since she's pregnant and due to give birth in a matter of weeks. Luc and Mieke discover than Ad and his wife Els (Renee Soutendijk) live in a tiny cottage in the woods, cut off from the world, and Ad has no particular interest in explaining what he's been doing for the fast decade and a half. Frustrated and wary of Ad and Els' shabby living conditions, Mieke soon returns home, but Luc stays on, hoping to rebuild his bridges with his brother. Time seems to only aggravate long-standing tensions between the brothers, which is not eased by the increasing rapport between Luc and Els. Before long, Luc begins hearing strange noises in the basement under Ad's hovel, and he discovers that Ad and Els have been hiding a terrible secret -- a deformed, almost feral boy who is kept in a cage like a wild animal. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jaap Spijkers, Renée Soutendijk, (more)
- 1996
A widowed Latvian father's quest for a much-loved Dutch pen pal, whom he hasn't heard from in three decades, provides the basis of this comedy-drama. The father is accompanied by his traumatized and mute eight-year-old son whom he had to kidnap from a Riga hospital. Together, the two flee towards Holland where the father Yuris hopes to find his long-lost friend Marie, whom he remembers as a great beauty. During the long journey, father and son have several funny adventures, many of which occur because neither father nor son speak much Dutch. They finally arrive at Marie's door empty-handed. What they find, gives them little hope, for the lithe young idealist of Yuris' dreams has become middle-aged and cynical. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
