Petite Soeur

Although already 10 years old, this movie remains one of the most inventive films ever made in the Netherlands, and launched the careers of Kim van Kooten and the director, Robert-Jan Westdijk. The captivating performance by Kim van Kooten and her talking into the camera gave me the feeling that I was intruding in something very private.Her fantastic looks in a "girl next door" kind of way, made that feeling even stronger. The supporting cast are also very true to life. I do not want to give anything away of the storyline, since the viewer really has to let himself get drawn into the story and experience the fantastic twist at the end.It is still a shame that dutch cinema is not seen on a bigger platform, due to the language barrier and that it seems that even academy award winning films like The Assault, Antonia and Character are largely unknown outside the Netherlands and the relatively small group of European film lovers in America.

Zusje is one of the most intelligent and fascinating films I have ever seen. The way the story is told, the performances, everything about this film is brilliant. The story is gruesome, tragic, and very unpredictable. It leaves you wondering right up to the final scene about what really happened between Daan and Tijn when they were children, and leaves you with an ending nobody could possibly guess. Shocking and fascinating, a film well worth seeing.

LITTLE SISTER (Robert-Jan Westdijk - Netherlands 1995).

Hard to tell what makes "Zusje" work so well. The concept of the faux-documentary and the entirely subjective, mostly hand-held camera-work is both highly original and certainly something novel in the Netherlands at the time. Or is it the main role by Kim van Kooten, who is almost permanently on screen. Director Robert Jan Westdijk apparently auditioned over three hundred candidates for the main role, but none of them apparently had the right quality to express a certain kind of innocence when looking directly into the camera (which occurs a lot). After this endless search, Kim van Kooten - in her debut role - came up as first choice and she is a real find. She really is the kind of unpolished natural talent every first-time director dreams of.

Through the subjective camera we're soon part of a voyeuristic and rather uncomfortable journey when we join video-obsessed Martijn (Romijn Coonen with the voice of Hugo Metsers III) who - after a long absence - decides to pay a surprise visit to his younger sister Daantje (Kim van Kooten) on her 20th birthday and starts filming her almost constantly. She is a design student in Amsterdam and seems quite tolerant of her brother's continuous presence while he obsessively intrudes her daily goings-on. Daantje engages in a turbulent relationship with Ramon (Roeland Fernhout) whose initial tolerance of Martijn - now entering his life as well - soon makes place for irritation.

Through frequent flashbacks (grainy footage shot on super-8) we slowly learn some things about Daantje en Martijn's childhood. It becomes apparent that some uncomfortable unresolved issues still stand between them, but it remains unclear what their relationship was like when they were children. The very film we're watching is Martijn's documentary on his sister, but soon the tables are turned when all the footage he shot is stolen and Daantje starts taking some of her own measures to put Martijn in place.

Practically the whole cast and crew was under 30 during shooting and the largely unknown cast of newcomers greatly attributes to the raw and fresh feel of the film. The verité style and dialog of "Zusje" might suggest a lot of improvisation during filming, but Robert-Jan Westdijk and Jos Driessen meticulously worked on the script for years, in order to make the film as authentic as possible. Everything, to the most insignificant details, was carefully prepared.

In the Netherlands, the film was more a kind of cultural phenomenon than it was a huge hit in cinemas, but considering its micro-budget, the 140,000 sold tickets were quite OK. Despite this enthusiastic reception by the critics and public alike, it never really caught on in other countries. The subject matter was probably a little too edgy and uncomfortable for most audiences. Surely the breath of fresh air Dutch cinema needed.

Camera Obscura --- 9/10

Brilliant psychological drama with lots of humor interwoven. Also a great throwback to Amsterdam in the 1990's.

I saw this Dutch treat courtesy an international film festival, not long before Blair Witch Project broke big. Given that prior to that the most ground-shaking found-footage movie, arguably, was Man Bites Dog, also from Europe, consider this makes an interesting, more sedate companion.

Ominous, lens-eye-view drama takes place almost entirely through the viewfinder of a video-camera owned by the mostly unseen Martyn, who drops in unannounced on his pretty fashion-design-student sister Daantje for her 20th birthday, after a long separation. Martyn pathologically films Daantje, her friends and her Kama-Sutra-reading lover Ramon, and tries to make Daantje watch a collection of home movies he's brought with him containing some sort of dread secret.

Such is the climate of sexual obsession (and that she puts up with him at all) it's no surprise at all Martyn and Daantje have a past tainted by sibling incest. As Martyn craftily drives off Ramon and sabotages Daantje's support circle, the question is whether she'll succumb to her brother's perverted seduction a second time - or, for that matter, whether she's as sick as he is. The trick ending might leave some viewers scratching their heads.

I guess with little stretching this might be put into the class of all those "from hell" thrillers about deranged, overly persistent admirers, of which Fatal Attraction wrote the most imitated template. We've since seen roommates-from-hell, babysitters-from-hell, co-workers-from-hell, ex-wives-from-hell, dating-app-stalkers-from-hell, even old-army-buddies-from-hell. This is the brother-from-hell, and without the continuous-camera-eye gimmick, I promise, it would not have been quite so interesting. The technique also makes the viewer neatly complicit in the voyeurism.

Watch all the way through the closing credits for an epilogue. It won't give you answers, but is sardonic enough.