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When We Lost to the Germans film image; two people strut down an alley

When We Lost to the Germans

Toen we van de Duitsers verloren

Panorama

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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

     

Director
Cast

Rein Hoeke, Kylian de Pagter, Susanne Wolff, Sanne Vogel, Peter Blok, Juda Goslinga

Credits
Country of Origin

Netherlands

Year

2023

Language

In Dutch with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
84 min
Family Relations
Family Affair Films, Polar Bear

Book Tickets

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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 headshot; When We Lost to the Germans director

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)

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