Flodder

The Flodder family is a headache for the council. They get on with nobody, do not pay rent, and make wherever they live unusable within a short time. A social worker finds a solution: he will put the family in an empty house in a wealthy neighbourhood. Officially it is an integration scheme. They move in. In the neighbourhood every garden is tidy, every car clean and every life quiet. From the first day the order breaks, and the neighbours organise to get the family out. Dick Maas writes and directs. Nelly Frijda plays the mother and Huub Stapel the social worker. It is a Dutch production. The film was among the most watched domestic productions in the Netherlands at the time and sequels and a television series followed. The method of the humour is contrast; the narrative criticises both sides and the hypocrisy of the wealthy neighbourhood is shown harder than the family. Some of its jokes are coarse and carry the shapes of their time; they may be found uncomfortable now. Dick Maas was the best known director in Dutch genre cinema in the eighties and worked between horror and comedy. The family the narrative builds is nowhere reformed and the film does not present that as a lack. The music is also the director's and its theme became widely known in the Netherlands. Who it is for: viewers who like eighties European comedy and coarse humour. Who it is not for: the jokes have dated, the plot is weak, and some scenes are indefensible now.