Manu Verreth

Father Daens returns to Aalst, where workers suffer from poverty, child labor, and exploitation in the textile industry. Driven by his sense of justice, he takes their side, even if it means confronting the church and the upper class. A detailed historical drama about the fight for justice.

In this film version of the Dutch-language classic ('heimat'-)novel by Flemish author Felix Timmermans, the title character is a city-boy from Lier who after recovering from a life-threatening disease changes his life completely and his name to the self-invented Pallieter. He moves in with Charlote, a naive, caring relative in the country, where he starts frolicking, no longer caring for image, career or possessions, but concentrates on enjoying life -such as a draftee relative's Brueghelian wedding- and finds love with Marieke. A dark story-line however is when projected work on the river in the name of economical progress threatens the rural landscape they have fallen in love with...

In this film version of the Dutch-language classic ('heimat'-)novel by Flemish author Felix Timmermans, the title character is a city-boy from Lier who after recovering from a life-threatening disease changes his life completely and his name to the self-invented Pallieter. He moves in with Charlote, a naive, caring relative in the country, where he starts frolicking, no longer caring for image, career or possessions, but concentrates on enjoying life -such as a draftee relative's Brueghelian wedding- and finds love with Marieke. A dark story-line however is when projected work on the river in the name of economical progress threatens the rural landscape they have fallen in love with...

The movie made after the hit series "De Kollega's" starring the same characters, but rather tragicomic. When November 11, an official holiday (Armistice), falls on a Tuesday, the public service often gets an extra day off on the preceding Monday, but only after a formal ministerial decision, and this time it gets all the way trough the hierarchy to the right office- and then isn't read, so all the colleagues turn up, only to be told they should have stayed at home. It gets worse: works in progress and clumsiness end up blocking the way out both by lift and staircase, so they are stuck on their floor, apparently without a phone, while there's nobody outside who can hear and rescue them. Forced to keep their conversation going, some secrets get unearthed, and it's not a very pretty picture they got of each-other.

In this atmospheric psychological drama by Jef van der Heyden, concert pianist Kasper Bertheim lives under psychiatric care in Geel, haunted by the memory of a woman he believes has vanished into the underworld. After witnessing a funeral, he leaves his foster home and wanders through a surreal cityscape that seems suspended between life and death. Along the way, he encounters workers, drifters, priests and other outsiders who guide him deeper into his obsessive search. Adapted from a novel by Hubert Lampo, the film blends psychological drama with magical realism, creating an ambiguous world where madness, grief and imagination merge, and where it remains uncertain whether Kasper’s visions are delusions or glimpses of another reality.

The movie made after the hit series "De Kollega's" starring the same characters, but rather tragicomic. When November 11, an official holiday (Armistice), falls on a Tuesday, the public service often gets an extra day off on the preceding Monday, but only after a formal ministerial decision, and this time it gets all the way trough the hierarchy to the right office- and then isn't read, so all the colleagues turn up, only to be told they should have stayed at home. It gets worse: works in progress and clumsiness end up blocking the way out both by lift and staircase, so they are stuck on their floor, apparently without a phone, while there's nobody outside who can hear and rescue them. Forced to keep their conversation going, some secrets get unearthed, and it's not a very pretty picture they got of each-other.