Directing

Paula van der Oest

Paula van der Oest (born 1965) is a Dutch film director and screenwriter. Her 2001 film Zus & Zo was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. With her final exam at the Dutch Film and Television Academy, Zinderend, she won a Cannon Award in 1988. In the following years, she worked as an assistant director, until she returned in 1994 as a director. For the VPRO-series Lolamo…

Known For

The Forgotten BattleThe Forgotten Battle · 2021
The Forgotten Battle
7.12021
MovieWarHistory
During WWII's crucial Battle of the Scheldt, the lives of a glider pilot, a Nazi soldier and a reluctant Resistance recruit tragically intersect.
The Bay of SilenceThe Bay of Silence · 2020
The Bay of Silence
4.52020
MovieThriller
Will believes his wife Rosalind is innocent of their son's suspected murder, only to discover the devastating truth behind her past links her to another unsolved crime.
The Parts You LoseThe Parts You Lose · 2019
The Parts You Lose
6.72019
MovieDramaCrime
An unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
The SoundmanThe Soundman · 2025
The Soundman
7.52025
MovieDrama
May 1940. As Europe trembles on the brink of war, two lives cross within Brussels’ legendary Flagey building, the beating heart of national radio. Elza, a young actress making her debut in radio drama, meets Berre, a gifted soundman with a magical ear. She is enchanted by storytelling; he finds solace in sound. Their encounter sparks a love that dares to exist beyond the rising shadow of their time.
Madame JeanetteMadame Jeanette · 2004
Madame Jeanette
10.02004
MovieDrama
When her husband Ted is put in jail Bibi suddenly needs to provide for herself and decides to contact fortune teller Madame Jeanette.
AccusedAccused · 2014
Accused
6.92014
MovieDramaThriller
An assistant prosecutor zealously pursues a conviction in the case of a pediatric nurse accused of murdering her patients, but doubt arises when her evidence shows that the infants may have died of natural causes.
Zus & ZoZus & Zo · 2002
Zus & Zo
5.02002
MovieComedyDrama
Three wacky sisters try to save their inheritance from their supposedly gay brother, who suddenly appears with a fiancé in tow. If he gets married, their father's will stipulates that he gets the family hotel in Portugal. So the sisters put aside their personal differences and set out to stop the wedding at all costs.
The Domino EffectThe Domino Effect · 2012
The Domino Effect
5.02012
Movie
If global economy came to a sudden stop what would be the effect on families worldwide? People in different countries or continents might not seem to be interrelated but there is more than meets the eye and we might be more connected than we sometimes like to think.

Filmography

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Elias or the Fight with the NightingalesElias or the Fight with the Nightingales · 1991
Elias or the Fight with the Nightingales
5.71991
MovieDrama
Set on the eve of World War I, this poetic coming-of-age drama follows Elias, a sensitive twelve-year-old dreamer living on an isolated country estate. Raised by an eccentric, overprotective family detached from reality, Elias finds refuge in nature and his vivid imagination to escape his internal struggles. His fragile childhood bubble is shattered when he learns he will soon be sent away to a strict boarding school. During his final summer at home, Elias experiences a bittersweet emotional awakening shaped by three relatives: his older cousin and close companion Aloysius, his young cousin Hermine, who harbors a subtle infatuation for him, and his beautiful, melancholic Aunt Henriette, who serves as a dramatic muse. Based on Maurice Gilliams’ modernist classic, the film is a nostalgic, melancholic portrait of a boy forced to leave his idyllic fantasies behind and face the adult world.

Assistant Director

Roos en RanaRoos en Rana · 2001
Roos en Rana
3.52001
MovieDrama
The Dutch Roos and the Turkish Rana are two adolescent bosom friends who divulge all their secrets to each other in a diary. Whereas the philandering Roos is more interested in boys than in school, the reserved Rana tries to make the best of her study. The girls are very different, but share the desire to become famous, as well as the fact that at home nobody understands them. Roos' single mother is working all the time and Rana is completely fed up with her mother's traditional upbringing. When Rana's brother reads a passage from the girlfriends' diary to his mother, the situation escalates. Rana is put under house arrest and is no longer allowed to associate with Roos. For the girls, this is the limit: they take the first train to Turkey. The long journey becomes one great adventure, which not only puts their friendship to the test, but also brings about great changes on the home front.

Writer

Hidden FlawsHidden Flaws · 2004
Hidden Flaws
6.52004
MovieDrama
Seventy-year-old Agnes takes the ashes of her dear Robert and travels to their regular holiday cottage on the Scottish island of Mull. On the way, two Dutch runaways, the ten-year-old girl Chris and her younger brother Tommie, sneak into her car. The children warn Agnes they will flee again if she calls the police. In the secluded house, beautifully located near a bay with a view of the sea, the elderly woman and the children gradually grow towards each other. Chris is confident and short-tempered, and dominates not only her younger, pigheaded brother, but also old Agnes, who loses herself in memories of Robert. Meanwhile, Agnes has to withstand the people who want to take over the house from her. The surroundings play a major role in this adaptation of Renate Dorrestein's novel about family, trust and secrets.

Director