The Man from Rome 2023
A skeptical Vatican priest travels to the southern Dutch province of Limburg to investigate a reported miracle, only to get entangled in a series of apparently miraculous events that undermine his vocation.
A skeptical Vatican priest travels to the southern Dutch province of Limburg to investigate a reported miracle, only to get entangled in a series of apparently miraculous events that undermine his vocation.
Sam wakes up, gets ready and goes to do his daily job. And then the unexpected happens. A bomb explodes in the center of the shopping mall where he works. He drags himself towards the entrance to save the victims. One by one he pulls them out, until something terrible takes place. In complete hysteria he runs off till he falls down from exhaustion. A woman's voice makes him raise his head. She's one of the victims he saved. She wants to know why the suicide bomber did it. This encounter projects him back in history and even in a surreal world. Thereafter he runs into everyone he saved and feels that their defeat shows many parallels with his own. Even his confrontation with the wrongdoer isn't that straightforward as he thought it would be and confronts him with the fact that guilt and innocence can be pretty much alike.
Drama on the dawning love between a Polish woman and a farmer. Anna is forced to work in a brothel, but manages to escape. She's found, exhausted and scared, by Henk (the farmer) who offers her a place to stay, but her past chases her.
Mirte is a cleaner in the reception centre for asylum seekers at the airport. She tries to forget her past through routine. When the charismatic West African Luc is brought in, Mirte seems to get a grip on her life again. A film about loss, fleeing and love from an unexpected corner.
Rayco, an 8-year-old boy, and his sister Paula, 14, kill time as they anxiously await crabs arrival in Tenerfe. But their mother has become pregnant by a foreigner and their lives could change before the crab arrives on the island.
Holiday bus driver Mario has spent his entire life shuttling old age pensioners to the sunny south with his own travel company 'Paradise Trips'. Today, on the verge of his own retirement, Mario has to bring a motley crew of alternative partygoers to a psychedelic festival in Croatia. The journey soon turns into a fascinating trip that confronts Mario with his own prejudices and his long-lost son.
A mosaic film about a group of people in the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands strugging with loneliness, hope and love.
A sturdy flight attendant has to deliver a child in mid-air and gets involved in a confusing mother/lover relationship with a boy who's living under the streets of Bucharest.
When a successful young artist named Benjamin is involuntarily committed, he is completely baffled, for he doesn’t remember anything about what happened. Life in the psychiatric institute is violent and absurd, but step by step, Benjamin seems to come to grips with himself again. He starts to realize how narcissistic he used to be. When he is released and meets up with his old friends, he is confronted with yet another truth.
A story about the 14 year old Heleen who makes the transition of child to adult with pain and effort in the wild 70s. While her parents going to divorce she is exploring the world of sex, drugs and love on her own.
The quirky Dutch-Jamaican Hadiah Tromp (21) is the daughter of Navy officer Tromp, who believes his daughter is a perfect fit for the Navy. But Hadiah doesn't like her Navy training. She prefers to stay at home and listen to her collection of old Ska records. When her boyfriend cheats on her, she decides to finish her Navy training. But Hadiah has difficulties feeling at home in the disciplined and closed environment of the naval frigate and she has constant collusions with the handsome but stern Sergeant Major Paul Borremans. Can the impulsive Hadiah stand tall in the Navy world full of rules? Or is she forced to leave the ship early?
What do you do if you want to keep reality at a distance? You put a camera in between, just like the boy that unrelentingly lets his camera run at his father’s funeral. His mother can order him to put the thing away as much as she wants, the son keeps capturing what his eyes don’t want to see and his heart doesn’t want to feel. In the process, the handheld perspective also represents the mourning of a child who’d obviously rather play than weep.
Lotte Bax analyses a night in which she fell victim to senseless violence. Teaming up with first-time director and sister Fleur and their other sister Sophie, Lotte tries to construct an alternative ending to this night, while discussing the consequences and associated fear. At the same time, astronomer Annelotte Derkink examines a supernova: a cosmic explosion. This way, Lotte and Annelotte both investigate a nocturnal event that leaves deep marks. Can they mould the night to their will?
Nine-year-old Daan is really excited about taking up swimming when he discovers his mother's old swimming medals in the attic. When his school teacher encourages him to join the nearest local swimming club, Daan finds out that his mother is definitely not amused. She is afraid that Daan inherited her cardiac problems. Despite his mothers fears, Daan doesn't wait and starts training behind her back.
One evening, a blind woman comes out of her car with a tear-stained face. In a flashback, we see the preceding events. She sits on a swing and falls for a man's voice who asks her for directions. But she does not want to touch his face. As a girl, she could fantasise about her face, until she touched it. Now, she fears the same with the man.
At his sunnet, his circumcision party, 7 year old Turkish boy Cihan, finds out that becoming a real man takes more of him, then just being circumcised.
Marc-Antoine and Mickael are staying every winter behind on a by tourists abandoned island. Like their friends they are also full of plans to leave for the mainland, but is Marc-Antoine able to escape his solidified routine?
Short film based on a short story by Jaap Scholten, in which a pregnancy does not last for nine months, but nine hours. A man and a woman meet each other at a party and decide to proceed to conceive a child. In the nine hours that follow, they pass through all stages of pregnancy, up to and including the childbirth.
Father explores the relationship of a dad and son who haven’t been in touch in the last years. While he tries to reconnect with his son in the present, he reflects with his girlfriend on the past.
When a cab driver reluctantly has to pick up his last customer of that night in a deprived neighbourhood in Rotterdam, it turns out to be a lady that gives this last ride an unforgettable twist.