Character

Dreverhaven is dead. The city's most feared bailiff, the curse of the poor, the agent of law without compassion discovered with a knife through his heart. A self-taught lawyer who just passes his exams was the last person to see Dreverhaven alive. Now, the police want to know why he visited the old man, and the young barrister is ready to tell the story of a lifetime.Based on the popular classic 1938 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk, this emotional powerhouse of a drama portrays a timeless struggle between father and son, a struggle even the father knows the son is destined to win. Beautifully set in Rotterdam of the 1920s, this visually stunning film delivers us deep into the heart of a Dickensian world, austere and cruel yet still touchingly human. Fredja van Hu t and Jan Decleir star in writer/director Mike van Diem's Academy Award -winning feature debut.

• drama