A Noble Intention

Amsterdam, 1888. Walter Vedder, a violin maker, lives with his son in a small house across from the newly finished Central Station. The city is growing; a company wants to put the Victoria Hotel on that land and is buying up the houses one by one. The neighbours sell. Vedder holds out for a far higher price. His cousin Anijs is a pharmacist in a town in the north. He is in trouble over practising medicine he is not licensed for, and is looking for a way out. Between them they devise a plan: Vedder will sell the house for a great deal of money, and with it the poor peat cutters of the district will be sent to America. The plan is founded on good intentions and driven by pride, and the ending is heavy. Joram Lürsen directs, adapting Thomas Rosenboom's novel, with Gijs Scholten van Aschat as Vedder and Jacob Derwig as Anijs. A hundred and fifteen minutes.