28/04/2011

The spin-off of a popular TV series that was in turn based on an internet phenomenon, Dutch film New Kids Turbo [+see also:
trailer
film profile], directed by its creators Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil, sold over 1.1 million tickets in the Netherlands since it release early December last year.

The film came out in Germany on April 21, and has become a huge success there as well. It has already been seen by 250,000 people, placing it first among the new titles released that week (releases included James Cameron’s Sanctum, Red Riding Hood and Nanni Moretti’s We Have a Pope [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nanni Moretti
film profile]). No other Dutch film has been this popular with its country’s eastern neighbours.

New Kids Turbo was released in a massive 186 theatres by local distributor Constantin Film, double the number of screens it premiered on in the Netherlands back in December. German audiences were treated to a dubbed version, with the original Dutch actors dubbing their own voices in heavily accented German for added comic effect.

The film focuses on five low-life characters from a small village in the south of the Netherlands who seem to be stuck in the 1990s, and whose lives are turned upside down when they stop receiving welfare checks and then decide, as an act of rebellion, to simply stop paying for anything at all. The film glorifies antisocial behaviour and comic violence in a manner reminiscent of the Flodder films of the 1980s and 90s, which were also successful in Germany.

Dutch newspapers reported that the German cinema owners had mixed feelings about the success of the film. On the one hand, it was the only film with full houses during the exceptionally warm Easter holidays, but many of the patrons caused trouble as they followed in their anarchic heroes’ footsteps. They smuggled large quantities of beer into the cinemas and the police and firemen had to intervene in several cities, where toilet facilities were vandalised and people smoked hashish during the screenings.

Production company Eyeworks has a sequel called New Kids Nitro in pre-production. It should hit Dutch theatres in December.