Movies: Frans Van Schaik

“Ciske de Rat” belongs to the Dickensean “little man’s hard life” model and tells a deceptively simple story about a boy in modern Netherlands. Persecution, loneliness, adults’ hostility, fear, mixture of obstinacy and tenderness, and even an impriso...

Heintje Blom, a simple working woman, is told to move into a villa in a posh part of town. The inhabitants are none too pleased, but in spite of the class division a romance blossoms between the rich family’s son and Heintje’s daughter. The two famil...