In pre-WWII Holland, the penniless, illegitimate son of a powerful bailiff sets out to become a lawyer as he spends a lifetime struggling to prove his worth to his relentlessly spiteful father.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.0/10
IMDb: 7.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.73/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
TMDB: 7.4/10
Director
Mike van Diem
Production
First Floor Features, Almerica Films
Cast
Jan Decleir, Fedja van Huêt, Betty Schuurman, Tamar van den Dop, Victor Löw, Hans Kesting, Lou Landré, Bernhard Droog, Frans Vorstman, Fred Goessens, Jasper Gottlieb, Marius Gottlieb, Pavlik Jansen op de Haar, Marisa van Eyle, Wim van der Grijn, Jaap Spijkers, Jos Verbist, Mark Rietman, Jack Hedley, Cas Jansen
Curator Review
Verdict
A powerful, old-school prestige drama about a son trying to outgrow a brutal father’s shadow. It’s emotionally severe, beautifully mounted, and built around a corrosive family conflict that deepens into a story of ambition, class, and self-invention.
Best for
viewers who like intense father-son dramas
fans of period legal or social dramas
people drawn to emotionally restrained but cathartic storytelling
audiences who appreciate strong production design and classical filmmaking
Skip if
you want a light or fast-moving drama
you dislike melodrama or theatrical storytelling
you prefer contemporary settings
you need a plot driven more by twists than by character conflict
Overview
Set in interwar Holland, this is a stern, absorbing drama about inheritance in the broadest sense: money, status, resentment, and the damage a parent can do when love is replaced by domination. The film’s central relationship is ugly, fascinating, and hard to shake; it treats the father-son struggle as both a personal war and a social climb.
Worth noting
What gives the film its force is the seriousness of its craft. The period detail is vivid, the performances are commanding, and the story keeps returning to the same emotional wound from different angles until it becomes almost mythic. It can feel deliberate and a little old-fashioned, but that formality suits the material.
Bottom line
This is not a warm film, and it doesn’t want to be. It’s a grimly compelling study of ambition under pressure, with a payoff that feels earned rather than sentimental. If you like your historical dramas severe, literate, and psychologically bruising, it lands strongly.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (4.5★) · 138 likes
On The Road: The Dutch Frontier - Windmills, Bicycles, Decks and Questionable Places
The family drama continues, but this time it's not about a foreign conflict or a dispute between political parties; it's about the complex dynamic of a father and son's bond, particularly when the father openly disowns his son and actively seeks for methods to wreck his son's life. At least that's what it appears to be. But as the old adage goes, "there's more to it than… more
legolas (4.5★) · 43 likes
An old tale of resentment centered on an illegitimate son abandoned by his father, thus creating an intense battle of wills that unfolds through a brutal yet strangely symbiotic relationship. It's a fascinating portrayal of just how complicated and contradictory a father-son relationship can be. I think Karakter's greatest strength is the way it explores that deeply dysfunctional dynamic from multiple angles rather than reducing it to something simple.
Dreverhaven actively sabotages Katadreuffe throughout the film, constantly emerging from the… more
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (4★) · 38 likes
Not to give any major spoilers or anything on my upcoming review for The Devil All The Time, but my entire schedule, just like the film itself, its pretty tight to one particular theme. In the case of this film, the family drama and the ties that may take us into a dark path.
In the case of this Oscar Winning movie, we get to dive deep into the broken relationship between a son and his father, and how this… more
Jed H (3★) · 30 likes
Fun, but obvious to see how it won best international picture. One of the most hollywood-esque foreign films I've seen.
Krommedijk (4★) · 22 likes
In 1997, director Mike van Diem made one of the best films ever made in the Netherlands. The story, based in a novel by the same name, follows the lives of Jacob Katadreuffe (Fedja van Huêt) en Dreverhaven (Jan Decleir). Karakter's story opens in the port of Rotterdam in 1930. A young man walks around named Jacob Katadreuffe walks around in the harbor. His face shows he is in a state of frenzy. He walks towards a large building -… more In 1997, director Mike van Diem made one of the best films ever made in the Netherlands. The story, based in a novel by the same name, follows the lives of Jacob Katadreuffe (Fedja van Huêt) en Dreverhaven (Jan Decleir). Karakter's story opens in the port of Rotterdam in 1930. A young man walks around named Jacob Katadreuffe walks around in the harbor. His face shows he is in a state of frenzy. He walks towards a large building -… more