European Films

A father searches for answers about his lost daughter in an isolated village in the Ardennes region in the Belgian thriller De indringer (The Intruder). The cinematic debut of TV director Frank van Mechelen is rife with all the genre clichés one would expect from such a premise, including the retarded village idiot and a mountain of red herrings that would directly qualify as the highest peak of the idyllic forest region, but despite this, Ward Hulselmans’s script and especially Joris Brouwers' brisk editing keep things well-paced until the final twenty minutes, when De indringer comes up with a convoluted explanation of what is essentially an easy way out.

A radical Muslim took the life of outspoken Dutch director Theo van Gogh in November of 2004, when he was working on the final edit of his latest film 06/05 (May 6th). Ironically, 06/05 is about another real political murder, this time on the popular right-wing politician Fortuyn. He was killed at the hands of an animal- and environmental rights activist on the sixth of May 2002 (hence the title). Van Gogh here offers us a conspiracy theory using the bare facts of the Fortuyn murder as a starting point for a thriller. The script of 06/05 was written by Van Gogh and crime novelist Tomas Ross and is based on a book from the latter, in which this particular theory was first put forward. Not being too familiar with the case and not having read the book, I cannot comment on the veracity of the facts presented, suffice it to say that they do somehow– quite miraculously I might add –- work as a film.