Character

Rotterdam before the war. A bailiff is found dead in his office. Jacob Katadreuffe is arrested for the killing; a young lawyer, and the dead man's son. Under questioning he tells his life. His mother was Dreverhaven's housekeeper; the man wanted to marry her, she refused and raised the child alone. Jacob took nothing from his father. He tried to study, borrowed, went bankrupt. Every time the same name came up: Dreverhaven was buying his debts and ruining him. Was the father helping his son or crushing him. Mike van Diem directs. Jan Decleir plays Dreverhaven and Fedja van Huêt plays Jacob; Betty Schuurman is in the cast. It is a Dutch and Belgian co-production. The source is Ferdinand Bordewijk's novel. The film won the Oscar for best foreign language film. The matter it treats is how a person is hardened; the title comes from there. The narrative does not show the father as one dimensional; his intention stays uncertain to the end. The photography is dark and the city is deliberately shown as cold. The narrative proceeds in flashbacks from the interrogation room and the time is layered. The mother is its silent centre; she accepts nothing. Its limit is the watching; the narrative is sombre, the characters hard, and the film gives no warmth. Who it is for: viewers who like European period drama and literary adaptations. Who it is not for: it is sombre, heavy, and the ending cold.