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.
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.
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.
To show the many lovers of his mother how he feels about them, a young boy buries the gifts he gets from them in the woods. But then one of them gives him a dog, called Dajo.
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.
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.
A mosaic film about a group of people in the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands strugging with loneliness, hope and love.
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.
What happens if someone loses control over his own life and at the same time searches for grip in ascending and descending devices? A winterly story about loss, desire and airplanes.
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.
Samuel (35) and Sarah (33) Ofori, together with their daughter Faith (15), have fled their home country of Ghana. When working as a police officer, Samuel was on the trail of a corruption scandal, but has since then felt that his life is in danger. Finally, after years of waiting, they are offered housing in The Netherlands. Their new home is in a wealthy neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. The young family is amazed when they enter the beautiful, large house: could they finally start over here? However, their happiness proves to be short-lived, for, as Samuel begins to observe frightening events, this home turns out to be just the start of a disturbing new nightmare.
Renate is left behind in a department store after breaking up with her boyfriend there.
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?
A man with bloody hands is arrested as prime suspect in a murder case. He does not understand why and refuses to cooperate. Bernard Van de Wiele, the suspect, is a writer. One of the police inspectors comes up with the idea to give him a typewriter: an Olivetti 82. The interrogators hope that this way he will agree to share his story. Bernard begins his memoir: a long search for love and protection. Little by little the truth comes to light.
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.
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 Sarah looks out of her window she sees several situations between couples take place. It is like she is watching her own life and all the choices that could change it. In the end she can take a decision about her own life by looking at others. The couples tell a story about a world in which you can loose the direction of your life just like that. And find it again.
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.
A young father and mother meet each other by their little son’s hospital bed. From their terse sentences, but especially from their mutual discomfort, you can tell they are divorced and rarely talk to each other. Because their son has to stay overnight for observation, the parents are forced to spend the night together. This also forces the viewer to observe how much is left of their relationship.