Marnie Blok

Frailer

A woman diagnosed with terminal lung cancer gathers her three dearest friends together to make the most of the time she has left.

Upstream

A story on the trials and tribulations of a mother-and-son relationship, which goes downhill after son Damiaan passes his school exams and almost immediately moves into a squat, while his widowed mother Aleid falls for the charms of a skipper and moves in with him just as soon.

Godforsaken!

Two small town Dutch boys whose socially unnatural friendship is so close, they care nothing for human or divine rules and lose all grip on reality, sliding into violent crime.

Polonaise

In the TV film Polonaise, traffic jams have grown into a phenomenon in which traffic jam call girls, hairdressers and photographers enliven the endless delays. The film follows a number of people in a jam on the A5. The central character is a Pole in an expensive Saab Convertible, who is wanted by the police. A red Panda carries the heavily pregnant Hilde and her cynical sister. Hilde is worried because she has not seen her friend anymore after a quarrel. In an old Saab, a young couple is bickering. She is a `yuppie cunt' who stakes her marriage for a parking licence and is tired of her husband smoking dope. Charlie the music promoter is driving his son's car. He likes traffic jams, because they allow him to settle his deals undisturbed and meet his secret love, the traffic jam call girl Nena. While the characters are confronted with each other and themselves more and more, tension rises to a peak. A radio pirate connects the story lines with his chatter.

With Great Joy

By accident, Luc discovers the whereabouts of his brother Ad, who mysteriously disappeared fifteen years before. As it turns out, he is living with Els, secluded from the rest of the world, on a farm. Luc decides to stay a few days, even though he and his wife Mieke are not welcome at first. After a while, Mieke heads home. Also, Luc hears strange sounds coming from a barn at the farm. He decides to investigate the matter. He discovers a secret that Ad and Els have been hiding for years.

The 18.10 Train

Onno (30) applies for a dream job as curator in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. He makes it through to the last round with the arrogant yuppie Alex. The younger and self-assured Alex seems to have a better chance of getting the job and Onno will not tolerate that. A few days before the last interview, he kidnaps his opponent and locks him up in a remote cottage that his girlfriend has just inherited near a railway line. As soon as he gets the job, he releases his victim. Three years later - Onno now lives together and has a son - he is a successful curator at the Rijksmuseum and needs an assistant. While interviewing applicants, he is confronted with Alex, now blind in one eye.

Cowboy from Iran

The Iranian refugee Amir finds two golden retrievers while jogging on the beach. They have slipped their leash in the hands of Marijke, a middle-aged woman who takes out her daughter Emma's dogs every day and does her housekeeping. Marijke is not capable of keeping her selfish daughter in line and has no authority over the dogs. Amir wants to help her. When Emma hears she has subcontracted the dogs to a refugee, mother and daughter come into conflict. Emma looks for a replacement, but is eventually forced to ask Amir. When they meet, they get on at once, until his residence permit runs out.

Brittle

The parents of five sisters have been married for forty years; the daughters have gathered in the family beach house to make a video for them. The encounter is marked by many confrontations as well as cheerful moments. Reminiscent of the sweet children's poems that mother recited are countered by Elsschot's Marriage: 'He thought: I'll kill her and set light to the house...' It also turns out that father had once disappeared for eighteen months, a 'secret' that the daughters have different ideas about. Brittle, an intimate film version of a play written and performed by the same actresses, is about rivalry in a family, the right to silence, but also about the need for solidarity. At the Netherlands Film Festival in 1997 the Golden Calf for Best Actress was awarded to the five actresses together.