THE DINNER

HET DINER

By Menno MEYJES

EYE FILMMUSEUM - as PROMO

Drama - Completed 2013

What does a parent do when they discover their children are involved in a murder?

Festivals
& Awards

Toronto - TIFF 2013
Contemporary World Cinema
    • Year of production
    • 2013
    • Genres
    • Drama
    • Countries
    • NETHERLANDS
    • Languages
    • DUTCH
    • Duration
    • 114 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Menno MEYJES
    • Writer(s)
    • Menno MEYJES
    • Producer(s)
    • Maarten SWART (Eyeworks Film & TV Drama), Reinout OERLEMANS (Eyeworks Film & TV Drama)
    • Synopsis
    • Four people. One dinner. An unavoidable decision.
      The story of a father wanting the best for his child unfolds like a tightly directed family drama with black edges, in which at every turn a little more of the underlying reality is revealed. How far will the father go to protect his son after he finds out what terrible thing the boy has done? Far, is the answer.
      In the most congenial of settings, a sumptuous dinner for two brothers and their wives at a fashionable establishment in the capital, knives are sharpened. They are meeting to discuss what to do about their fifteen-year-old sons, partners in crime. During the diner the dissatisfactions and frustrations that have smoldered for years rise to the surface. Paul Lohman, a history teacher who’s taken early retirement, is full of aggression, both towards the restaurant with its pretentious food and service, and towards his brother, Serge Lohman, the popular politician whose ambition is to become premier of the Netherlands in the forthcoming elections.
      The characters grapple with themselves. Comforting and loyal as Paul’s wife initially seems, her true role in this horrifying story turns out in the end to be one of treachery. Brother Serge and his wife have a hidden agenda too. After this dinner nothing will ever be the same again. THE DINNER is a portrayal of modern mores, exploring a contemporary moral dilemma about honesty and dirty tricks. How far, as a parent, do you open your eyes to the actions of your child and call him to account? The drama cuts close to the bone.