We opened the champagne last week, but of course it’s not really news until we share it with you too. We are super Proud and happy that our latest project SOULS has been awarded a realisation grant by the Netherlands Film Fund. The film is directed by Hetty de Kruijf and the screenplay is written by Manon Uphoff.
SOULS tells the story of Ivan and Nadja, two children from two friendly families from former Yugoslavia. Where one family flees the country due to civil war, the other family stays. Years later, in the Netherlands, Ivan and Nadja reunite, but their summer of rediscovery ends tragically through the shadows of the past.
Hetty de Kruijf graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy as film director in 2015. Her graduation film, Nighthaven, won several prizes and screened at international film festivals. In 2017 she conceptualised and directed the television movie, Jungle, which was nominated for two ‘Gouden Kalveren’, taking home one of these in the category of best actor at the Netherlands Film Festival. Additionally, the film was well received at international level, being nominated for a Rockie Award, the Prix Europa and is the Dutch entry for the International Emmy Awards. Her short film, Nothing to Declare, premiered at the Netherlands Film Festival in 2018.
Manon Uphoff is a Dutch writer, screenwriter and visual artist. She made her debut in 1995 with the short story collection Begeerte, which was nominated for the AKO Literature Prize, the Anton Wachter Prize and the ECI Prize. The title story was awarded the Rabobank Spring Prize for Literature. Her first novel Gemis (1997) was nominated for the Libris Literature Prize.
Her most recent book,Vallen is als Vliegen (2019), was shortlisted for the 2019 Bookspot Literature Prize and shortlisted for the 2020 Libris Literature Prize. The novel was named the best Dutch-language novel of 2019 by NRC Handelsblad and Humo and ranked first in the end-of-year newspaper and magazine mirror, compiled by bookstore Athenaeum