Fedja van Huêt Movies

Set in present-day Holland, screenwriter/director Nanouk Leopold's third feature film tells the tale of an ageing patriarch who has given up on life, and the disruptive shockwaves that his fateful decision sends rippling through his family lineage. Konraad (Piet Kamerman) lives alone in his beautiful country home, accompanied only by the grief of his recently deceased wife. Most of Konraad's days are spend just lounging around and listening to music. His daughters and granddaughters have long since grown up and moved out on their own, and when they each receive a letter from their emotionally fragile patriarch stating that he simply wishes to die they all view it little more than yet another irritation in their already hectic lives. None of them harbor any great affection for the ailing Konraad, yet his sixty-something daughter Maria (Catherine ten Bruggencate) nevertheless determines to find her father a suitable apartment. Granddaughter Sabine (Tamar van den Dop) has married and started a family of her own, though the union is fast crumbling due to incessant arguing and verbal abuse. Eva (Karina Smulders) is Sabine's sister, an attractive and talented violinist who is consumed by ennui. Upon realizing that her sister and mother have received a letter and she has not, the lonely soul simply views her grandfather's perceived slight as but the latest in a long line of rejections. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Writer/director Nanouk Leopold delivers this deceptively simple study in alienation concerning an outwardly contented mother and wife who gradually begins to question her lot in life after discovering the body of a colleague who committed suicide. By all outward appearances, Anna leads a simple life. When she's not at home caring for her young son, she's usually traveling abroad to Egypt for work. It's during one of these regular business trips that Anna discovers the body of her colleague hanging in the shower. By all accounts she was a happy woman, making her desperate last act all the more confusing to Anna. When the woman's husband remarries just a short while later, the discovery that he has recovered from his grief and moved on so quickly shakes Anna to her very core. Though Anna and her husband have grown comfortable in their shared routines, are they truly satisfied with the way their lives turned out? When Anna's father arrives on the island of Guernsey with his own new family, her existential doubts are only amplified. Keeping the secret of her discovery from her loved ones, Anna quietly begins observing the lives of her friends and family, furtively searching for unspoken truths, and mournfully pondering why people seem to drift apart so easily. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A brush with death forces a man to come to terms with his family in this drama. Alex (Fedja van Huet) is a photographer who is still dealing with the emotional scars of his troubled adolescence, as well as the suicide of his father. Alex hasn't heard from his twin brother Aram (also played by van Huet) in years when he receives an unexpected call, with Aram informing him that their mother is dying and that he should come to the family estate, known as Amnesia, at his soonest convenience. Alex and his girlfriend Sandra (Carice van Houten) arrive at Amnesia to discover that his mother Eva (Sacha Bulthuis) is drinking heavily and in rapidly failing health; while petty criminal Aram has been hiding out at Amnesia after a run-in with the law, he hasn't been handling affairs especially well, and Alex steps in to take care of Eva and mind the house. As Alex deals with Eva's illness and his issues with his brother, he finds himself thinking of traumatic events from his childhood, putting long-buried emotions into a newly keen focus. Amnesia was the first feature film from writer and director Martin Koolhoven. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This dark drama from the Netherlands won the 1998 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Dreverhaven (Jan Decleir), the most ruthless and intimidating bailiff in Rotterdam, is brutally murdered, and a young attorney, Katadreuffe (Fedja Van Huet), is arrested in connection with the crime. Under questioning, the angry young lawyer reveals a hidden motive for the killing -- he is Dreverhaven's illegitimate son. Katadreuffe's mother, Joba (Betty Schuurman) had an affair with Dreverhaven but refused to marry him, preferring to raise her son on her own, despite her difficult economic circumstances. Eventually, Joba takes in a boarder, Jan Maan (Hans Kesting), and Jan becomes something of a father figure to the boy, urging him to improve himself and pursue new opportunities in business. As a young man, Katadreuffe takes Jan's advice to heart and obtains a bank loan to open a cigar shop. The shop soon fails, and Katadreuffe must negotiate terms with the bank to pay off his debt. The young man discovers that the bank is managed by Dreverhaven and learns that his father has no desire to help him. While obtaining legal advice on his problems with the bank, Katadreuffe becomes interested in the study of law, and after a great deal of struggle, he makes his way through law school and obtains a low-level position with a prominent legal firm. However, his father often appears along the way, berating Katadreuffe and convincing him that he's doomed for failure, until the young man becomes convinced that Dreverhaven controls his entire life and wants nothing more than to destroy him. Karakter was based on a novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk that was a major bestseller in the Netherlands. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi