leonvandersanden

De helleveeg (2016)

De Helleveeg shows the life of an intriguing young woman from the point of view of a boy

Through the eyes of a young boy we look at Tiny, an intriguing young woman.All men seem to love her - and she seems to love and please every man --- even the ugly and older ones. Tiny is like a hurt little bird. Sometimes she rages, sometimes she is warm and tender for the young boy. The movie shows how she and the boy get older - and how he discovers an awful secret about her. The actors all play very daring - they become older and older during the play. It is all about the hypocrisy in a family in the catholic south of the Netherlands in the fifties and sixties. When at the end the secret about Tiny is revealed, the personages are all very old - their lives have slipped away and nobody ever noticed Tiny's pain. Life is irreversible and Andre van Duren shows this in a moving and impressive way - and transcends the mere movie-anecdote of a hurt and abused girl. This is a worthy successor of the other movies by director Andre van Duren. With again realistic provincial people made of flesh and blood --- who are comical as well as tough and narrow- minded in their smugness. In De Helleveeg you can feel how a whole life slips away - and therefore it was moving and poignant.