Like New Zealand, Belgium and the Netherlands have small populations and consequently small film budgets that rely heavily on government funding. As a result film makers from these countries, like our own, have a reputation for innovative methods and a roll-your-sleeves-up attitude. When Dutch director Paul Verhoeven first moved to Hollywood he was stunned by the excess of the industry there; his second U.S. film, 'Robocop', contains many digs at the ultimate consumerist society that were not in the original script he was given. In 1992 three Belgian film students released their daring and controversial film, 'Man Bites Dog'; made on a shoe-string this film proves the point that it doesn't take great amounts of money to make great films - just plenty of imagination, dedication and a fair amount elbow grease. Pictured: A scene from castrato Farinelli's colourful and eventful life
This demented Belgian slasher thriller starts innocently enough with cabaret singer Marc (Laurent Lucas) having van trouble in the middle of nowhere.... Read more
Belgian musician Tom Barman, founder of the rock band dEUS, has made a wild, ambitious debut that draws its influences from sources as varied as Woody... Read more
A.k.a. "De Tweeling". After the deaths of their parents, inseparable twin sisters Anna and Lotte Bamberg are cruelly separated at the age of six. Anna... Read more
Mentally-challenged Pauline is obsessed with pretty flowers and her glamourous sister Paulette. When Martha, her caretaker sister, dies suddenly, Paul... Read more
'Rosetta' (1999, 90 mins) Winner of the 1999 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and widely hailed as a masterpiece, 'Rosetta' is an extraordinary... Read more
Winner of the 1997 Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, this Dickensian drama is set in Rotterdam during the 1920s detailing the events that occur... Read more
Hailed by critics as one of the top ten films of 1996, this unforgettable, lyrical drama tells of Igor, a teenage thief whose father is a master swind... Read more
Marleen Gorris' winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film centres on an elderly woman who recalls her life in a small Dutch village on the day... Read more
'Farinelli il Castrato'. A sumptuously filmed saga of two brothers in 18th century Europe, one a composer and the other a castrato opera singer. (Fari... Read more
Marleen Gorris' winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film centres on an elderly woman who recalls her life in a small Dutch village on the day... Read more