Israel, 1956: Jewish teacher Rachel Stein rather unexpectedly meets an old friend at the kibbutz. It brings back memories of her experiences in the Netherlands during the war, memories of betrayal. In September 1944, Rachel's hiding place is bombed by Allied troops; she makes contact with a resistance member and joins a group of Jews to be smuggled across the Biesbosch to the freed South Netherlands. Only Rachel escapes a massacre by patrol Germans, and is rescued by a resistance group under the leadership of Gerben Kuipers, whose son is captured trying to smuggle weapons. Kuipers asks Rachel to seduce SS-hauptsturmführer Ludwig Müntze, a mission that she will soon learn that the boat attack wasn't a coincidence.
Acting
Carice van Houten is devastating — vulnerable, fierce, unreadable.
Direction
Verhoeven's return to Dutch cinema: zero restraint, maximum provocation.
Writing
Everyone's the hero of their own story. Everyone's wrong.
Director
Paul Verhoeven
Carice van Houten
Rachel Stein / Ellis de Vries
Sebastian Koch
Ludwig Müntze
Thom Hoffman
Hans Akkermans
Halina Reijn
Ronnie
Waldemar Kobus
Günther Franken
Matthias Schoenaerts
Joop
Theo Maassen
Prison Guard with Baret
Derek de Lint
Gerben Kuipers
Christian Berkel
General Käutner
Dolf de Vries
Notary Wim Smaal
Peter Blok
Van Gein
Michiel Huisman
Rob
Ronald Armbrust
Tim Kuipers
Frank Lammers
Kees
Johnny de Mol
Theo
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Verhoeven spent 20 years developing this; it's loosely based on real Dutch resistance accounts and his own wartime childhood memories.
The most expensive Dutch film ever made at the time, it reopened the Netherlands' suppressed conversation about Jewish persecution and resistance collaboration.
NL
