Kenau

In 1573 the Spanish army lays siege to Haarlem. Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer, a timber merchant, works on the defence of the city: trenches are dug, walls repaired, and the women are part of the work. The film shows Kenau at the head of an army of women and makes the rage at her youngest daughter's execution the engine of the story. Now her eldest daughter's life is in danger too. Maarten Treurniet's Dutch film turns a historical figure into a heroic account. Kenau really lived and did work on the defence during the siege; in the seventeenth century she was painted holding weapons. But whether she fought in the front line is disputed today, and historians do not speak with certainty about it. The filmmakers themselves said that passages such as the daughter's execution are fiction. Monic Hendrickx plays Kenau.