Elsje de Wijn

The story of a romantic relationship between a Canadian soldier and a child set in the Netherlands near the end of WWII. Told in flashback from the present day, the child, now a man, is still seeking his lost soldier.

A murderer is at large: a well-dressed businessman incarcerates his victims, chains and starves them, and documents their death amid their filth with Instamatic snaps. Meanwhile, in another part of town, a woman joins a brothel...

Unrelenting pessimism dominates this slow-paced, dark film, the debut feature from director Digna Sinke dedicated to an archetypal born loser named Marian (Josee Ruiter). Marian is a journalist who has been working in Latin America and who arrives home just after her father dies to find out that the man she had married for purely political reasons might be deported because the authorities found out he was not living with her. Meanwhile, Marian is upset that her mother and sister are keeping her mentally handicapped brother in an institution, and she goes there to get him released into her custody -- a mistake it turns out. He is actually worse off with her, and vice-versa. On top of everything, Marian cannot break away from the depression she feels over a tragic incident that happened while she was in Latin America -- and anything she does is colored by that moment from the past. These burdens become almost too much to bear, both for Marian and the viewers.

Una pareja casada atraviesa una dura etapa en su matrimonio. La convivencia se hace cada día más insoportable. El marido es un mujeriego incurable, y la mujer está cansada de su inmadurez y quiere una vida más estable. Sin embargo, ellos se aman y cuidan el uno del otro.