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THE LYING DUTCHMAN

By Ulrike GROTE

Family - Development 2017

What does a wild, independent, brash, extremely handsome, sixty-year-old eternal teenager do when suddenly and out of the blue he becomes a granddad?

- Year of production
- 2017
- Genres
- Family
- Countries
- GERMANY
- Languages
- GERMAN
- Budget
- 3 - 5 M$
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Ulrike GROTE
- Writer(s)
- Ulrike GROTE
- Cast
- Rutger HAUER, Thekla REUTEN
- Producer(s)
- Ilona SCHULTZ (Fortune Cookie Film), Ailish MCELMEEL (Grand Pictures Limited), Floor ONRUST (Family Affair Films)
- Synopsis
- Ruben Vanmeer, a freedom-loving former ship’s cook, makes his living as a chef in the small restaurant “The Flying Dutchman” in a beautiful provincial Irish coastal town near Galway. The villagers treasure him greatly since he took over the kitchen – the food tastes much better than before, when Beth Mc Millan (57) whirled the ladles. She is the owner of “The Flying Dutchman“ and has one sole weakness: Ruben. Beth is deeply in love and recently started a loose, secret affair with him. She would like it to grow into more but Ruben prefers the situation just the way it is: noncommittal, independent, discreet.
  All would probably stay that easy way if it weren’t for Ruben’s daughter Pauline who went missing years ago and suddenly turns up one day, out of the blue. She not only brings along a new family member - her son
  Noah, a brave little five-year-old kid, with the same wild blond hair and the same wild attitudes as Ruben - but also the dolorous memories of Ruben’s family which he played no small part in destroying with his past behaviour. Deep-rooted quarrels and fights break out between father and daughter and in the end Pauline leaves Noah behind with his stunned grandfather Ruben and disappears without a trace.
  All of a sudden, Ruben is left with the stubborn little boy, while still being very busy with the restaurant. Noah is constantly standing in his way and gives him a hard time. Ruben needs Pauline to come back, but when he finds her she is in a hospital in Dublin, suffering from a severe form of leukaemia with only a few weeks left to live. Her intention had been to see Ruben one last time to say goodbye and for him to meet his grandson. In the meantime, she has already made arrangements for Noah, he is going to live with a foster family. Ruben, agitated and in despair, returns home, struggling in vain to ignore his feelings.
  Back in the coastal town, he collides with Beth who fires him. Suddenly, he has loads of time to spend with Noah and, without realising, he gets more and more attached to his little grandson by the day. But Noah misses his mother. Ruben takes off to Dublin again and brings Pauline home: home to him and home to her son. He cooks for her and throws a big party for her. Then she dies.
  At last, Ruben is forced to face the fact that he needs to come to a decision: flee responsibility as usual, or keep Noah and start a new family with his grandson and Beth.