The Polish Bride

To be shown: 5 November 2001

Netherlands 1998 (subtitles)
86 minutes
Directed by Karim Traïdia
Leading players - Monic Hendrickx, Jaap Spijkers.

Synopsis

Anna (Monic Hendrickx) discovers too late that the offer that induced her to leave Poland for the Netherlands was in fact for enslavement to two pimps. She escapes in terror, and is found exhausted by farmer Woldring (Jaap Spijkers). She refuses his immediate offer to pay for her return journey to Poland, but proposes that she work on the farm for the money. Amid daily work on the farm and the fine landscapes of the Groningen uplands, the two grow to love each other. But the pimps return.

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Gestures count for more than words, and nature and feelings more than action, in this film that recalls elements of the director's childhood in Algeria. This movie won a raft of awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe.

"...Traïdia has depicted an intimate, interior love affair with a brave subtlety that is sadly absent from much of modern cinema." James Mottram.