Dorp aan de rivier

Summary

Screen version of Antoon Coolen’s regional novel about a strong headed village doctor.

In around 1900 Tjerk van Taeke sets up a medical practice in a small village in the southern province of Brabant. The local poor appreciate his help but the village worthies won’t have anything to do with him. The doctor befriends a poacher who tells him colourful stories about the village and its inhabitants and so introduces him to the real Brabant. When van Taeke’s wife dies, however, he feels there is nothing left to keep him there and he leaves.

Dorp aan de rivier marks Fons Rademakers’ debut as a film director. Before then he had mainly worked in the theatre. Although the film was tepidly received at home, the scene in which villagers hold a wake for the dead miller’s hired hand impressed audiences abroad. The film was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign language film and the Berlin Film Festival nominated it for a Golden Bear. It was enough incentive for Rademakers to decide to aim his future productions at an international market.