Antonia's Line

The war ends. Antonia returns with her daughter Danielle to the Dutch village where she was born; her mother is dying and the farm will pass to her. They stay. Antonia does not marry; she says no to those who ask and builds an order of her own. In time the farm gathers others: people cast out, displaced, with nobody. Danielle wants a child but not a husband. A granddaughter comes, then a great granddaughter. The film follows four generations and fifty years. Marleen Gorris writes and directs. Willeke van Ammelrooy plays Antonia. It is a Dutch production. The film won the Oscar for best foreign film in 1996, among the first such awards for Dutch cinema. The order the narrative builds is centred on women; men are not excluded but do not own it. The religious and social pressure of the village stands against the narrative and the film shows it directly. The register is warm and violence is not hidden; a rape in the village and the decision taken afterwards make its hardest section. The structure proceeds through leaps of years and births and deaths set its rhythm. Its limit is idealisation; the community built is too harmonious and the conflicts are resolved quickly. Who it is for: viewers who like generational narratives and drama centred on women. Who it is not for: there are many characters, the pace is uneven, and the narrative at times comes close to fable.