The cinema of the Netherlands will have a dedicated section at the 25th edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival, set to take place this June in Cluj-Napoca.

Focus Netherlands, curated by Evgeny Gusyatinskiy, a member of the programming team of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), will cover both recent debut films presented at major European festivals and cult classics that have influenced entire generations of filmmakers.

The selection includes some of the most compelling recent titles from Dutch cinema, alongside classics such as George Sluizer’s psychological thriller The Vanishing and Paul Verhoeven’s Spetters. Joining them is Truly Naked, the debut feature of director Muriel d’Ansembourg, announced in the TIFF.25 official competition.

The selection of Dutch films also includes Nanouk Leopold’s Whitetail, telling the story of a forest ranger in southern Ireland accustomed to keeping everything under control; Sven Bresser’s Reedland, which traces how a crime slowly transforms a community’s routine into a space dominated by mistrust; Aaron Rookus’s De Idylle, about a man trying to rebuild his life; Michiel ten Horn’s Fabula, the story of a small-time criminal from Limburg who is convinced that his family has been cursed with bad luck for generations; Dan Geesin’s A Messy Tribute to Motherly Love, described as a mix of dark humor, body horror, and mayhem; and Mercedes Stalenhoef’s I Shall See, on how a 17-year-old has to adapt after an accident leaves her blind.

The Netherlands will also be represented in the TIFF.25 juries: Sandra den Hamer, the CEO of the Netherlands Film Fund from 2023 to 2026 and a member of the IFFR team for over two decades, will be part of the Official Competition Jury, while René Wolf, with a career spanning more than 35 years as a film programmer at Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, will be part of the Romanian Film Days Jury.

The Focus Netherlands selection is rounded out by the cine-concert Beyond Sleep, directed by Boudewijn Koole, about a geologist on an initiation journey to the edge of survival in the Arctic tundra. The film’s score, awarded the Dutch Oscar in 2016, is performed live by two of the musicians involved in the original recording, Alex Simu and George Dumitriu.

This year’s edition of TIFF takes place from June 12 to June 21 in Cluj-Napoca.

(Illustration: TIFF)

simona@romania-insider.com