Writing

Roelof Jan Minneboo

Acting credits

Behind the camera

The Occupant poster
5.6

Desperate to save her sister, Abby takes a dangerous job in the remote Georgian wilderness. Stranded in the mountains after her helicopter crashes, she finds hope through John, a mysterious helper radioing from nearby. As he guides her through the harsh conditions, Abby struggles to survive, and her grip on reality falters until she is faced with an impossible choice.

The Occupant

2025

Khibula poster
4.7

The screenplay for Khibula was inspired by the real events taking place in Georgia briefly after the country regained its independence in 1991. Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first president of Georgia, elected by the majority of votes, was driven into exile by coup d'etat. Even though he returned to regain power soon after, political clashes once again forced him to flee into the mountains. Based on the final chapter of the first President's life, the film starts off by following his journey accompanied and pursued by both friend and foe.

Khibula

2017

Pomegranate Orchard poster
6.9

Inspired by Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, the film follows a prodigal son who returns after 12 years. His reappearance at the family home in rural Azerbaijan significantly alters their way of life.

Pomegranate Orchard

2017

No artwork available
NR

Pregnant Amal lives together with her family in Al Baraneya, a village outside Cairo, surrounded by jasmine fields. Their chaotic yet loving way of life is upset when a landowner offers to buy their land. The pressure to sell divides the family and doubts begin to grow. When Amal’s cousin Rania visits from Cairo, she captivates Amal and her younger sisters with her modern lifestyle: jeans, TikTok videos, and lively city stories. Amal starts to question the life that seems to have been laid out for her and dreams of moving to Cairo. Now that the potential sale of the land offers the prospect of a future in the city, the family’s unshakable faith in their own life in the village starts to waver.

Al Baraneya

No artwork available
NR

A young head of a family one day learns from the results of a medical test that it is actually impossible for him to be a father. This revelation shocks him: has his wife really been unfaithful? Is the girl he loves so much truly not his biological child? If so, then who is her real father? And is it true that, in order to live happily—or even to live at all—some things are better left unknown?

Quşlar Susanda

Sughra and Her Sons poster
6.0

1945. The women do the work in a remote village while the men are fighting the Nazis. A small group of deserters is hiding in the mountains and little Bahtiyar acts as the liaison between the men and the village.

Sughra and Her Sons

2021

The Moon is a Father of Mine poster
NR

Twelve-year-old Toma is expelled from school after being relentlessly tormented by his classmates. His estranged father, Nemo, who disappeared when the boy was just two years old, invites him to their ancestral village. The locals do not embrace Nemo's unwelcome return. But he doesn't fear anyone and is determined to pass on the ancient tradition of deer hunting to his son. This fateful weekend Toma learns survival, independence, and the dark secrets of his father's past.

The Moon is a Father of Mine

2025

Vlam poster
5.3

The temporarily displaced teenager Olivia wants nothing more than to return to her mother Selma. In crisis center Girla, she discovers just how suffocating their symbiotic bond truly is.

Vlam

2025

A Dark, Dark Man poster
6.5

A boy is murdered in Kazakh village. Detective Bekzat wants to wrap up the inquiries quickly: after all, the perpetrator has already been found by local police officers. But when a journalist arrives from the city, everything falls to pieces. For the first time in his career, Bekzat must conduct a real investigation according to procedure.

A Dark, Dark Man

2020

Up The River poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Up The River

2024

Corn Island poster
7.2

The Inguri River forms a natural border dividing Georgia from Abkhazia. One of the spring floods has created a little island in the middle of the river, as if made for the cultivation of corn. At least, this is the belief of an old peasant, whose sunburned face resembles the landscape he has trodden for dozens of years.

Corn Island

2014

The Garden of Earthly Delights poster
8.5

In the slums of Manila, 11-year-old Ginto dreams of gang life over scavenging, rejecting his sister Asia’s care as she turns to sex work to survive. As Ginto falls for another boy in the gang, he’s forced to confront his identity and desires amid violence and poverty. Meanwhile, Dutch tourist Michael, consumed by dark impulses, descends into the city’s red-light district. When their paths cross, Ginto faces an impossible choice that will shape both their fates in a world where innocence is currency and survival comes at a cost.

The Garden of Earthly Delights

2025

Cold as Marble poster
NR

The movie is about the mixed relationships between a failed artist and his girlfriend. Returning home after a long period of imprisonment, the father tries to improve his son's life in the most radical ways.

Cold as Marble

2022

Het Voorval - Armando en de mythe poster
NR

What happens in your childhood defines your life, according to artist Armando. His childhood was defined by one crucial incident; a boy kills a German soldier in the woods during the Second World War. The story recurs in Armando’s work in many forms.: an ill-fated event, a victim that becomes a perpetrator, a guilty forest that witnessed everything but remains silent. Was Armando involved in the fateful event or did he invent a tragedy of mythological proportions? Filmmakers Sjors Swierstra and Roelof Jan Minneboo go in search of answers.

Het Voorval - Armando en de mythe

2018

My Foolish Heart poster
5.4

In 1988 Amsterdam, a Dutch police detective finds himself on a bittersweet journey of discovery as he investigates the mysterious demise of jazz icon Chet Baker, found dead on the street below his hotel room in the city center.

My Foolish Heart

2018

Beautiful Helen poster
5.3

Helen is 25 years old. After finishing university, she comes back to her homeland from New York. The life was following its own route in her absence. Everything is foreign here for the returned Helen. Helen tries not only to find her place in Tbilisi - once a familiar environment for her - but also to find herself and find the keys that fit the locks of the main existential questions of life. Her encounter with film director Gabo is the start of an adventure that takes us into the minds and souls of a man and a woman, and old and a young soul. Their encounter is the start of a journey that encompasses more than just physical trip.

Beautiful Helen

2022

The Hunt for Meral Ö. poster
6.3

Meral Özturk is driven to despair when the Dutch Tax Authority wrongfully demands a massive repayment of childcare benefits. As her life falls apart, she discovers a social investigator infiltrating her life, forcing her to make radical decisions to protect her daughters.

The Hunt for Meral Ö.

2024

White Flash poster
5.7

After a long and torturous psychiatric history, a date is finally set for the much desired humane termination of the life of forty-two-year-old Rick. Will his parents be able to let him go out of their love for him?

White Flash

2024