Bride Flight

1953. Three women board the same plane out of the Netherlands: Ada, Marjorie and Esther. All three are going to New Zealand to marry the men waiting for them there. It is not an ordinary flight; it is part of an air race from London to Christchurch, and it will win that race. Frank is on the plane too. By the end of the journey all three of their lives have touched his somewhere. The film covers the fifty years that follow: the marriages made, a child kept hidden, and one night nobody talks about. Ben Sombogaart directs the Dutch film; two hours and ten minutes, with Rutger Hauer as the older Frank and Karina Smulders and Anna Drijver among the young women. It is adapted from Tessa de Loo's novel. The flight is real: in 1953 a KLM aircraft won the London to Christchurch race, carrying Dutch brides on their way to New Zealand.