02/10/2009

The Netherlands Film Festival, the country’s biggest showcase of locally produced films, draws to a close today.

The festival kicked off on September 23 with the premiere of Ramon Gieling’s Spanish-language film Tramontana, with young Volver [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agustín Almodóvar
interview: Carmen Maura
interview: Pedro Almodóvar
interview: Pénélope Cruz
film profile] star Yohana Cobo and veteran actor Lluís Soler in the leads. The story, set in a village in northern Spain, centres on the possible relationships the couple might have had before one of them finds death by hanging.

The film, produced by Pieter van Huystee Film and Television, was released into Dutch theatres by Wild Bunch one day later. The latest version of the Carmen story, most famously adapted by Bizet for his opera, also hit screens on September 24: Carmen from the North. The film by Jelle Nesna turns it in to a contemporary hip-hop version, and updates not only the classical Carmen story but also the Dutch film of the same title from 1919 that was directed by Nesna’s grandfather.

Also in theatres during the opening weekend of the festival: the disaster epic The Storm [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see news) and Lover or Loser, a new adaptation of a popular youth novel from Carry Slee by director Dave Schram.

Though only the latter was fully embraced by the critics, both shot to the top of the Dutch box office. The Storm, which had been released a week before the festival (see news), added another €590,000 to the coffers of distributor Universal for a total of €1.22m in two weeks. On 99 screens, ten less than The Storm, Lover or Loser made almost €278.000 for distributor RCV/E1, making it the third most visited film of the week.

The festival also premiered Upstream, the feature debut of Danyael Sugawara, with actress Anneke Blok as a widowed mother trying to deal with a teenage son and her own love life. The film will be released commercially October 8 by A-Film.

The Dutch national film awards, the Golden Calves, will be awarded tonight.