Gerard Thoolen

A Hot Summer Night

A husband, half of an entertainment duo, the Nellicos, tells his wife, who is the other half of the duo, that he has another woman. But they cannot discuss this as he tells her only just before they are due to perform in front of a large audience. (BFI)

Fien

Four-part musical about the life of Dutch actress Fien de la Mar, chronicling her earliest days on stage with her father, her glory days as a stage and movie star and the building her own theatre, up until the tragic end of her life.

A Dry White Season

During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.

Private Resistance

Otto, a Jewish refugee who managed to escape from Berlin in the early days of WW2, is now the owner of an Amsterdam ice cream parlor. Otto's place soon becomes a microcosm of the city with its German invaders, Dutch collaborators and anti-fascist resistance groups.

Transit

Four illegal Brazilian musicians come to try their luck in dynamic Amsterdam... It will be a survival of the fittest.

Red Sien

After her mother -- a prostitute -- is murdered by her father, Sien is raised by her grandparents. Instead of a bourgeois life with grocer's son Gerrit van Buren, she chooses for an adventurous life with toutman Jan Meier. She follows him and becomes a revue artist in an Amsterdam cabaret, until her father comes to see her...

Because of the Cats

A gang of six wealthy, well-dressed and well-spoken hoodlums break into a married couple's house and rape the wife while forcing the husband to watch. Thus begins a dogged investigation by a determined detective who quickly finds that their cult-like solidarity can be a serious obstacle to breaking them.

A Zed & Two Noughts

Identical twin zoologists lose their wives in a car crash caused by a white swan. They become obsessed with the death and decay of animals, and develop a strange and unusual relationship with the driver of the car, a woman who is now an amputee.

A Hot Summer Night

A husband, half of an entertainment duo, the Nellicos, tells his wife, who is the other half of the duo, that he has another woman. But they cannot discuss this as he tells her only just before they are due to perform in front of a large audience. (BFI)

Fien

Four-part musical about the life of Dutch actress Fien de la Mar, chronicling her earliest days on stage with her father, her glory days as a stage and movie star and the building her own theatre, up until the tragic end of her life.

A Dry White Season

During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.

Private Resistance

Otto, a Jewish refugee who managed to escape from Berlin in the early days of WW2, is now the owner of an Amsterdam ice cream parlor. Otto's place soon becomes a microcosm of the city with its German invaders, Dutch collaborators and anti-fascist resistance groups.

Transit

Four illegal Brazilian musicians come to try their luck in dynamic Amsterdam... It will be a survival of the fittest.

Red Sien

After her mother -- a prostitute -- is murdered by her father, Sien is raised by her grandparents. Instead of a bourgeois life with grocer's son Gerrit van Buren, she chooses for an adventurous life with toutman Jan Meier. She follows him and becomes a revue artist in an Amsterdam cabaret, until her father comes to see her...

Because of the Cats

A gang of six wealthy, well-dressed and well-spoken hoodlums break into a married couple's house and rape the wife while forcing the husband to watch. Thus begins a dogged investigation by a determined detective who quickly finds that their cult-like solidarity can be a serious obstacle to breaking them.

A Zed & Two Noughts

Identical twin zoologists lose their wives in a car crash caused by a white swan. They become obsessed with the death and decay of animals, and develop a strange and unusual relationship with the driver of the car, a woman who is now an amputee.

The Sunday Child

Happy Days Are Here Again

Tim, now a respectable family man, runs into his old buddy Bodde. Bodde convinces Tim to go out with him under the motto: "Laugh, laugh, laugh!" Tim calls his wife to tell her "he'll be a little late," while Bodde keeps persuading him to stay with him for a new deal or a wonderful plan, and so they roam the country. Along the way, they swindle money from everyone and meet the young, beautiful Aafke. Isn't Tim too old for all this?

Prospero's Books

An exiled magician finds an opportunity for revenge against his enemies muted when his daughter and the son of his chief enemy fall in love in this uniquely structured retelling of the 'The Tempest'.

The Kingmaker Connection

The reconstruction of a Dutch political scandal from the 1960s when a PR specialist managed to gain unhealthy influence in government circles. Eventually he became the biggest victim.

Always something different, rarely something good

Orlow Seunke's graduation film is a rural tragedy about an alcoholic father, a tyrannical mother and their weak son. Gerard Thoolen plays the successful brother.

The Hes Case

Hes, an uptight and disaffected social worker reaching retirement, discovers a young woman, Anna, in the closet of an acquaintance who has committed suicide. Realizing that she has been kept in the apartment all her life, he moves in and helps her comes to terms with the complexities of the real world.

The Lift

A lift technician finds himself drawn into a web of mystery and peril as he investigates the perplexing deadly accidents occurring in the elevators of a new office building.

The Illusionist

Two brothers end up separated for one of them has mental issues. Meanwhile one of the two follows his dream in becoming a magician.

The Cold Light of Day

A troubled detective befriends a single woman and her daughter with the intention of using them as bait for a serial killer.

My Father Lives in Rio

Liesje’s parents are divorced. She lives in a nice house with her mother and grandpa. Liesje writes letters to her father who lives in Rio de Janeiro. At least, that’s what her mother has told her. After Liesje’s grandpa passes away, she begins to miss her father more and more. She decides to go visit him in Rio. To get money for the flight, she sells the stamp collection she was given by her grandpa. Without her mother knowing, she boards the plane to Brazil alone – but then she finds out the truth about her father.

Tracks in the Snow

The full title of this Dutch film is Pervola: Tracks in the Snow. A stockbroker moves away from his home village of Pervola and puts his two sons in charge of his business. Older brother Hein (Bram van der Vlugt) cheats younger brother Simon (Gerard Thoolen) out of his share, claiming that Simon was disinherited because he is homosexual. Hein grows powerful, while Simon seems to weaken with each passing day. Flash-forward several years: the dying stockbroker calls his sons to his side. Faithful Simon agrees to dad's wishes that he be buried in Pervola, but Hein doesn't want to go to the trouble of transporting the body; he finally agrees to help Simon, out of fear that his brother will learn of his long-ago treachery. While arduously journeying to Pervola with the father's body strapped to a sled, Hein inadvertently confesses; Simon, however, is of strong enough moral fibre to forgive his brother.

Toestanden

"Conditions" - The improvisation-based performance was inspired by psychiatrists such as RD Laing (Family and Madness) and J. Foudraine (Who is of wood). The Werkteater played this performance 'in the den of the lion': in psychiatric institutions for patients and carers. This led to very intensive and adventurous performances in which 'a lot' always happened. Afterwards the discussions sometimes ran high, but even during the performance the audience sometimes mixed themselves in the scenes.

The Bitter Herb

This film is about the Jewish girl Sara and the ruin of her family during World War II. Her parents have to live in the Jewish ghetto in Amsterdam, but later they are arrested and deported. Sara decides to flee with her brother and his girlfriend to Palestine. Based on the book by Marga Minco.

The Three Best Things in Life

In this melancholic comedy we follow the successful young violinist Sacha as she travels by train from Paris to Amsterdam and three days later when she returns, bereft of many illusions yet purified within.

Hello Fellow Man

TV-adaptation of the performance by the Dutch theatre group 'Het Werkteater'. Three ladies of high society invite homeless people, homeless people and junks to spend a pleasant evening with them, in order to promote communication and integration.

The Mark of the Beast

In 1928 in the northern part of the Netherlands, a man has an affair with the wife of one of his friends (who is in jail at the time). Because she abandons her children to move in with him, the police are sent to arrest her. This leads to a dramatic confrontation.

Fien - De Musical

Four-part musical about the life of Dutch actress Fien de la Mar, chronicling her earliest days on stage with her father, her glory days as a stage and movie star and the building her own theatre, up until the tragic end of her life.