DEVILISH DILEMMAS: LOST DAUGHTER

A FILM BY MARTIJN MARIA SMITS

Tom and Anneke will soon be celebrating their silver wedding anniversary. They have long led a bitter life together, from which the worn-out ordinariness no longer offers them a way out. The grief over their lost daughter remains unspoken. But that changes when a young refugee whose asylum application has been rejected entrusts her child, still a toddler, to Tom. To his wife's astonishment, he takes the young refugee home. She wants nothing to do with it. Yet, the arrival of the child breaks open the loveless marriage. It offers them a glimpse of a new future, where that of the girl's mother ends.

Starring Bart Slegers and Loes Schneppers. Also featuring Marie Louise Stheins and Tanja Otolski, among others.

Directed by Martijn Maria Smits
Scenario Jacqueline Epskamp

In this domestic drama, the filmmakers portray a societal dilemma: the fear of the unknown and the cherishing of the familiar—even if that is a petrified or suffocating reality. With great affection, a couple is depicted yearning for liberation from the rut, yet terrified of it. Whatever they choose, the consequences will be immense. Their story contrasts with that of the desperate mother forced to leave the country as an illegal immigrant who decides to leave her child behind. This also happened this summer to the Armenian mother, Armina Hambartsjumian, who was deported without her two children. Children's Ombudsman Margrite Kalverboer and others condemned the act. "It is horrific. Any even remotely civilized country would not do this."

Premiere and debate at De Balie
The premiere of Verloren Dochter takes place on Monday, December 4, from 20:00 to 22:00 at De Balie.

We open the evening with an essay by sociologist Jan Willem Duyvendak, author of *Thuis. Het Drama van een Sentimentele Samenleving* (Home: The Drama of a Sentimental Society). He shows that a sense of home is very important to everyone. At the same time, many of our conflicts stem from the idea that we have a right to a sense of home, which can quickly lead to the marginalization and exclusion of newcomers.

This is followed by a conversation with, among others, legal philosopher Nanda Oudejans. She obtained her PhD on how the life of the asylum seeker is determined by a political community of which he himself is not allowed to be a part.

In his nomadic existence, writer Kiza Magendane always carries with him the question of what it means to be home. The civil war in his homeland of the Congo drove him to a refugee camp in Tanzania, from where he came to the Netherlands by invitation. He is now working on his first book, *The Search for the Dutchman*, in which he explores what it means to put down roots and surrender to a place with trust.

Bright Richards is a theatre maker and actor. In 1993, he came to the Netherlands as a refugee from Liberia. He lives by the understanding that 'home' is not the place where you come from, but the place where you are doing well. Through New Dutch Connections, which he founded, he helps young refugees in the Netherlands realize their dreams for the future. From March 2018, his production 'The Bright Side of Life' can be seen in theatres.

Tickets via the De Balie website.



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