July 7th, 1974. The Netherlands has just lost the FIFA World Cup final to West Germany. Now, the country is quiet, as if in mourning. But Jonas, a young boy, doesn’t really care for football. More concerned with collecting antiquities than sports, he makes his way around his sleepy town, encountering a cast of characters along the way who introduce him to the complexities of human nature, all while accompanied by his rebellious and unpredictable classmate Daan. Meanwhile, the potential abduction of a young girl, who happens to be Jonas’s schoolroom crush, casts a darker shadow over the town.
Directed by Guido van Driel, the creator of the graphic novel on which the film is based, and with black-and-white cinematography by Lennert Hillege, When We Lost to the Germans is a palpably authentic coming-of-age movie that might remind you of Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma or Italian neo-realist classics in the way it effortlessly conveys a specific time and place. The kids are wonderful, as the movie treads that fine, fragile line between innocence and experience.
Community Partner
Rein Hoeke, Kylian de Pagter, Susanne Wolff, Sanne Vogel, Peter Blok, Juda Goslinga
Netherlands
2023
In Dutch with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Floor Onrust
Screenwriter
Guido van Driel, Bas Blokker
Cinematography
Lennert Hillege
Editor
Stijn Deconinck
Production Design
Vincent de Pater
Original Music
Raf Keunen
Guido van Driel
Guido van Driel has written and drawn many successful graphic novels, of which When We Lost to the Germans was published in Germany and Guests in France. Van Driel’s debut film The Resurrection of a Bastard (2013), starring Yorick van Wageningen, was the opening film of IFFR 2013. Van Driel’s second feature Bloody Marie (2019) also premiered in Rotterdam, starring Susanne Wolff and Jan Bijvoet. When We Lost to the Germans is his third feature.
Filmography: The Resurrection of a Bastard (2013); Bloody Marie (2019)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Vivaldi and Me
Venice, 1716. Composer Antonio Vivaldi teaches at an orphanage for abandoned girls, and establishes a deep rapport with violinist Cecelia — but their collaboration is threatened by her impending arranged marriage.
Rear Window
James Stewart is the man who sees too much. "Jeff" Jeffries is a sports photographer waylaid by a broken leg, doomed to spend the summer in a wheelchair in his New York apartment. That's how he comes to witness a murder in the dead of night (or does he?).
Rose of Nevada
This disconcerting film from the director of Bait and Enys Men feels like a message from another era: two men sign on to a Cornish fishing trawler, but when they return to port they are welcomed into the community 30 years before they left...
To Die For
Buck Henry (The Graduate) wrote this acidic black comedy about a ruthless weather girl on the make (Nicole Kidman in her breakout role). A young Joaquin Phoenix is the dim teen she seduces on her way to achieving stardom.
Camp
Reeling from two devastating tragedies, Emily (Zola Grimmer) takes refuge at a summer camp for troubled youth, where she has been offered a position as counsellor. She finds friendship, but also something more unexpected, something truly troubling...
