Dutch Literature Film Screening in UCCA
The 18th Beijing International Book Fair with the Netherlands as Country of Honour provides literature fans with a great opportunity to get to know the diverse Dutch literature in the 1500 sq.m. exhibition parvilion in Shunyi, and meet with a group of excellent Dutch writers and illustrators to share their personal experience with literature. Moreover, “reading” classical Dutch literature by film will be one of the most wonderful ways to experience some best-selling Dutch books. In the end of August and beginning of September, six unique Dutch features will be screening in the UCCA Arts Cinema. All six films are based on very successful Dutch novels, and are award winners as excellent films themselves. Of these six novels, Minoes by Annie M.G. Schmidt, Out of Mind by J. Bernlef and Love Life by Kluun have been translated into Chinese and published in China, while The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt is to be published in Chinese soon. If you haven’t read those novels, the Dutch Literature Film Screening in UCCA will be a great opportunity to enjoy those stories. Please take a look at the film screening schedule, this summer will bring you unforgettable memories as Dutch literature and culture are brought to a Chinese cinema. All films are in original language (English or Dutch) with Chinese subtitles.
Winter in Wartime / Oorlogswinter
- Director: Martin Koolhoven
- Year: November 2008
- Drama, History, War, Children (103 min)
- Date: August 27, Saturday, 2:00PM
- Venue: UCCA Arts Cinema, 798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China 100015
Synopsis:
This film is based on the novel by the same name by Jan Terlouw. Near the end of World War II, 14-year-old Michiel becomes involved with the Resistance after coming to the aid of a wounded British soldier. With the conflict coming to an end, Michiel comes of age and learns of the stark difference between adventure fantasy and the ugly realities of war. The film was chosen by the Dutch Critics as the best Dutch film of 2008, it won the PZC Audience Award (best movie based on a novel), three Rembrandt Awards and three Golden Calf awards. It was chosen Best Film by the Young Jury (14-18 years) at the Rome Film Festival and was shortlisted (with 8 other movies) at the Academy Awards, in the section Best Foreign Language Film.
Minoes / Minoes
- Director: Vincent Bal
- Year: December 2001
- Comedy, Family, Children (86 min)
- Date: August 27, Saturday, 4:00PM
- Venue: UCCA Arts Cinema, 798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang
District, Beijing, China 100015
Synopsis:
Minoes (Undercover Kitty) is a 2001 Dutch film, based on the children’s novel Minoes by Annie M.G. Schmidt. A cat who turns into a young woman (Minoes) retains some of her feline characteristics and helps a journalist to gather news for the front page of a local newspaper. With the help of Minoes, who can talk to the cats in the small town, the journalist soon discovers that the helpful and popular chairman of the “Club For Friends of Animals” and boss of a nearby factory has evil plans with the village.
- Main actress Carice van Houten is the most awarded young actress in the Netherlands in these years. In 2001 she played the title role in “Minoes”, after the book by Annie M.G. Schmidt. Chinese audience will be more familiar with her character in the film “Black Book”, where she plays a young Jewish woman in the Netherlands who becomes a spy for the resistance during World War II.
The Letter for the King / De brief voor de koning
- Director: Pieter Verhoeff
- Year: July 2008
- Drama, Adventure, Children (110 min)
- Date: August 28, Sunday, 2:00PM
- Venue: UCCA Arts Cinema, 798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China 100015
Synopsis:
Tonke Dragt is a Dutch writer and illustrator of children’s literature. Her book De brief voor de Koning (The Letter for the King) was chosen as the best Dutch youth book of the latter half of the twentieth century. In “The Letter for the King”, 16-year-old Tiuri puts his future as a knight on the line when he receives an order from a dying knight. He must deliver a letter to the King of Unauwen in the utmost secrecy. His adventurous quest takes him through mountains, forests and valleys, where danger always looms around every bend. Under no circumstances may the letter fall into the wrong hands!
The Darkhouse / Terug naar de Kust
- Director: Will Koopman
- Year: October 2009
- Drama, Thriller (110 min)
- Date: August 28, Sunday, 7:00PM
- Venue: UCCA Arts Cinema, 798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China 100015
Synopsis:
This film is based on the story, Terug naar de kust (Back to the coast), an adaption of the Dutch novel of the same name by Saskia Noort. Single mother Maria starts to receive anonymous death threats. Together with her children, she flees to her former parental home, where her older sister Ans now lives. During those cold winter days in the secluded seaside house she is confronted with her traumatic childhood memories. But as the people close to her begin to question her state of mind, her assailant closes in.
Stricken / Komt een vrouw bij de dokter
- Director: Reinout Oerlemans
- Year: Novermber 2009
- Drama, Romance (105 min)
- Date: September 3, Saturday, 2:00 pm
- Venue: UCCA Arts Cinema, 798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China 100015
In this film, based Kluun’s bestseller Komt een vrouw bij de dokter (Love Life), Stijn and Carmen have everything: They are young, successful and wealthy. They live a perfect life in Amsterdam and move to Amstelveen when they have a child, Luna. Their world collapses when Carmen is diagnosed with breast cancer. Going in and out of the hospital, first chemotherapy and later radiation therapy, throwing up, the whole cancer package is there. Stijn has trouble dealing with it and starts living a second life. By day he’s nothing but support for Carmen, but by night he goes out, drinks and has lots of sex with lots of women. Carmen has always known that Stijn is not the faithful type, but after her breast is amputated she gets less confident and finds herself troubling over his unfaithfulness. For Stijn it has always been just sex, until he meets Roos. As Carmen struggles with her cancer, he sees Roos more and more. Then a miracle happens: Carmen gets better. She asks Stijn to quit cheating and to work things out between them…
Mindshadows / Hersenschimmen
- Director: Heddy Honigmann
- Year: January 1988
- Drama (115 min)
- Date: September 4, Sunday, 4:00 pm
- Venue: UCCA Arts Cinema, 798 Art
- District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China 100015
Synopsis:
Based upon the best selling novel Hersenschimmen (Out of Mind) by Dutch writer J. Bernlef. This is the intense and intimate story of what happens to the mind and the life of a person experiencing a loss of mental continuity. “Mindshadows” is a fascinating love story set against the rapid desintegration of Maarten Klein’s world and simultaneously, his rebellion against this desintegration.
Bernlef & Honigmann
- The Dutch writer J. Bernlef will be in China during the Beijing International Book Fair! Bernlef became known to a larger public with his novel Hersenschimmen from 1984, which treated the theme of dementia. The book has been the basis for the 1988 film, and a 2006 theatre play. Bernlef received the P.C. Hooft Award in 1994.
- The film director Heddy Honigmann has been in China and participated in the IDOCS International Documentary Forum in 2009 and 2010 to share her personal experience in documentary making. She also set up the Tiger Workshop in 2010 to work with many talented young Chinese documentary makers in Beijing. In November 2011, the Centre Pompidou in Paris will hold a retrospective showing all of her films.
“Honigmann is one of the most brilliant documentarians working today.” - Karen Cooper, Director, Film Forum, New York
“Heddy is simply one of the contemporary masters of the form… [She has] the consistent and uncanny ability to capture moments of profound emotional honesty.” - Sean Farnel, Director of Programming, Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival