Surprising Amsterdam (1990)

Wild Amsterdam

The city from the unique perspective of the many wild animals and plants that inhabit it. Seen through the eyes of the adventurous urban cat, Abatutu.

400km à pied jusqu'à Amsterdam (le plus gros défi de ma vie)

Plot unavailable

The Re-Up

A backstage and on-stage look at Nicki Minaj's career during the Pink Friday Tour, festivals, and more.

Ruurdt

In 2023, there were an estimated 30.6 thousand homeless people. This number continues to rise at an alarming rate. One of them is the headstrong Ruurdt. He has difficulty getting help and cannot adapt well to our society. He is now also in danger of losing the houseboat that was assigned to him. 'Ruurdt' is an intimate portrait of a man on the fringes of our society.

Scootmobiel

Frans Bromet follows scoot drivers of different ages about their lives. He talks to them about what has changed since they got a mobility scooter, about how their living space has increased, about the limitations of the vehicle and about what is and is no longer possible in private.

Nigella’s Amsterdam Christmas

Nigella returns for a very special Christmas treat when she travels to Amsterdam to enjoy the festive season in the Venice of the North.

Beppie

BEPPIE is a moving and disarming portrait of an Amsterdam street urchin. Van der Keuken once described her as follows: 'She was ten years old and the joy of the Achtergracht, where I was living at the time. An Amsterdam child, sweet and crooked as a corkscrew.' He films her while she skims the city with some friends and knocks at strangers' doors. Her family has nine children and is not well off. In those days, a visit to the De Miranda swimming pool cost a quarter, but only ten cents if the weather was bad. At school, Beppie gets a poor mark because she is too boisterous, but when the whole class rattles off the multiplication tables, she joins in at the top of her voice. All of TV-watching Holland was wildly enthusiastic about this portrait, with which Van der Keuken even made the front page of the national newspaper De Telegraaf.

De Platoschool

The Platoschool was founded in Amsterdam in 1983, a primary school for parents who wanted more than just math and language for their children. The founders of the Platoschool had great ideals, ideals that the parents of documentary maker Yara Hannema fell in love with. The children would grow into special people with a high level of consciousness, but the teachers ran wild in their strictness and discipline. There was beating and abuse of authority. The school was discredited and had to close its doors in 2002.

Embassy of the Free Mind

UNESCO Memory of the World: Explore the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica’s new home with 25,000+ rare books on alchemy, hermetica & mysticism at the Embassy of the Free Mind museum, set in Amsterdam’s historic canal mansion, the House with the Heads.

De Kinderen van Møkum, en ik

Documentary about a group of young idealistic friends in their squat in Amsterdam. Chased by the police and the press, they moved from squat to squat, with a clear message: don't make the city too expensive for the new generation of Amsterdammers. But living with such a large group and the flaws of the squat begin to take their toll. When the squatters collective falls apart halfway through the film, the filmmaker is left disillusioned and decides to confront the young squatters with her feelings of disappointment.

I Am Johnnie

A documentary about three men in the criminal environment of Amsterdam as they deal with unemployment, probation, and divorce.

Red Light Solo

A feature-length tour of Amsterdam's thriving jazz scene.

Sexwork & Me

21st century legal prostitution through the frank stories of Amsterdam red-light district sex workers at a time when tighter regulation threatens their livelihood.

Swimming with Wings

A short animated documentary exploring the immigration experience through the eyes of children learning how to swim with clothes on in the Netherlands.

Aunt Iki

Sigrid Koetse, award-winning actor and grande dame of Dutch theater, lived most of her life in the public eye and was always surrounded by a crowd of admirers. With this short documentary, filmmaker Wytse Koetse shows how his aunt spends her days nowadays, lonely in her Amsterdam home.

Wrong Fellows

Documentary about four maffia-like friends based in Amsterdam.

Bruin Jackson Superstar

Bruin has a new mission: to become a superstar, just like his idol Michael Jackson. Although singing is not his greatest talent, he starts - supported by friends and colleagues - to build a music career.

A Family of Amsterdam

This film presents scenes in Amsterdam including canals, Rijksmuseum, the harbor and home life of a typical family.

Dunya & Desie

Dunya and Desie are two 18 year old best friends from Amsterdam North. Dunya is Moroccan and Desie is Dutch. On Dunya's Birthday she is told that her marriage has been arranged with a distant cousin in Morocco. Dunya and her family will travel to Morocco to meet him. After Desie discovers that she is pregnant she joins Dunya in Morocco in a search for Desies father.

Still Smokin

Cheech & Chong are invited to a celebrity party in Amsterdam. When they get there, however, it turns out that the guy who invited them has taken off with all the money. They are actually expecting Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton, so our heroes get to be Mr. Burt and Mr. Dolly.

Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam

This 12 minute short was released as part of the Choose Your Own Adventure option on the H&K Guantanamo Bay DVD. The blurb is: "Ever wonder what would have happened if Harold & Kumar had not been sent to Guantanamo and simply made it to Amsterdam? Here's a little something director Jon Hurwitz shot guerrilla-style all over Amsterdam in 3 days."

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

Nerdy accountant Harold and his irrepressible friend, Kumar, get stoned watching television and find themselves utterly bewitched by a commercial for White Castle. Convinced there must be one nearby, the two set out on a late-night odyssey that takes them deep into New Jersey. Somehow, the boys manage to run afoul of rednecks, cops and even a car-stealing Neil Patrick Harris before getting anywhere near their beloved sliders.

Do Not Disturb

Combining a family vacation with business, Walter Richmond takes his wife and their 10-year-old, mute daughter, Melissa , to the Netherlands -- where Melissa inadvertently witnesses a murder. Unable to tell anyone what she's seen, the frightened girl vanishes in an attempt to elude the killers. Meanwhile, her parents try desperately to piece together the puzzle leading to Melissa's disappearance.

Stoner Express

Jack comes to Amsterdam to find his father and, through a momentary magical encounter, finds the secret weapon that could turn around his father's ailing marijuana coffee shop.

Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds are stolen only to be sold again in the international market. James Bond infiltrates a smuggling mission to find out who's guilty. The mission takes him to Las Vegas where Bond meets his archenemy Blofeld.

Hostel

Three backpackers head to a Slovakian city that promises to meet their hedonistic expectations, with no idea of the hell that awaits them.

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

Deuce Bigalow goes to Amsterdam after a little accident including two irritating kids and a bunch of aggressive dolphins. There he meets up with his old friend T.J. Hicks. But a mysterious killer starts killing some of Amsterdam's finest gigolos and T.J. is mistaken for the extremely gay murderer. Deuce must enter the gigolo industry again to find the real murderer and clear T.J.'s name.

Drawn Out Love

Felix has been raised by his grandmother and has never met his father. His father Johan, doesn't even know he exists. Felix decides to become a regular in his father's bar in Amsterdam to secretly learn more about the man he has never known.

De Dominee

Amsterdam, 1970s. A wealthy grammar school student Klaas and his friend start trafficking hash and become entangled in the brutal criminal scene.

The Diary of Anne Frank

The true, harrowing story of a young Jewish girl who, with her family and their friends, is forced into hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

Alice in the Cities

German journalist Philip Winter has a case of writer’s block when trying to write an article about the United States. He decides to return to Germany, and while trying to book a flight, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter Alice doing the same. The three become friends (almost out of necessity) and while the mother asks Winter to mind Alice temporarily, it quickly becomes apparent that Alice will be his responsibility for longer than he expected.

The Last Vermeer

A soldier and member of the Dutch resistance investigates stolen art in the wake of the Second World War, including a Vermeer sold to the Nazis by a flamboyant forger.

Black Lotus

An ex-special forces operative wages a one man war through the streets of Amsterdam to rescue his friend's daughter from the local crime syndicate.

Amsterdam Heavy

CIA Agent Martin Keele (Michael Madsen - Reservoir Dogs Kill Bill) sets the wheels spinning in this gritty urban action thriller, as mysterious gangster J.D. goes on the rampage in Amsterdam, stopping at nothing to uncover those who have betrayed him

Night Run

Dennis is a taxi driver trying to start out his own company. One day, he gets the opportunity to buy a scarce and expensive but lucrative license.

Amsterdam to Anatolia

Elissa's life takes a turn when she meets a mysterious man in her English class and she has to quickly decide between her family and him- and going from family-life to a life on the run is a wild choice to everyone but her.

Operation Amsterdam

When Germany invades Holland in 1940, a British intelligence officer and two Dutch diamond merchants go to Amsterdam to persuade the Dutch diamond merchants to evacuate their diamond supplies to England.

Unwanted

A lonely boy, who lives in Amsterdam with his refugee mother from Kosovo, keeps getting into trouble while yearning for her acceptance. But the traumas caused by the war, which his mother hides away from him, turn his world upside down.

Arthur & Claire

The chance meeting of two people at the darkest moments of their lives leads to a bright new beginning : Arthur (around 50) and Claire (around 30) pull each other from the abyss – by trying to save the other they see the worth of their own life.

Gangsta

Antwerp, Belgium. The lives of four small-time drug dealers spin out of control when they steal a shipment of cocaine, triggering a full out war between an Amsterdam drug lord and a ruthless Colombian cartel.

House of Boys

It is 1984. Frank is a determined English teenager who runs away from high school to find an alternative gay lifestyle in Amsterdam. He finds a home and a job at the "House of Boys", a bar-cum-brothel run by a strict Madame who has an eye for what his punters crave. Frank works his way up from barman to on-stage dancer and falls in love with some of his housemates, Jake. The first intimations of what is described as 'the gay cancer', casts a long shadow over Frank's tight-knit group of friends. Yet despite the troubles that cloud the hopes and dreams of young Frank, his perseverance, along with support from a willing doctor, will carry him through.

Kill Zombie!

The bizarre story takes place in Amsterdam-West, where a virus turns people into bloodthirsty zombies. Although much blood is flowing and many limbs chopped off, there is a lot to laugh at in this bizarre horror comedy.

Snuff Trap

Michelle lives in Paris with René, who is influential politicians. One morning as Michelle discovers that her 18-year-old daughter Lauren has not come home from a pub tonight. René does not want to involve the police, because he does not want a scandal that could affect his political career negative. They decide instead to hire a private investigator. It turns out that Lauren has been kidnapped to be used by a gang producing snuff. Detective withdraws from the case, however, because he fears for his life and Michelle decides to find their own daughter. The hunt goes by porn swamps in Paris, Amsterdam and Hamburg.

Truman

Tomás, who lives in Canada, travels to Madrid, Spain, to visit his old friend Julián. Both of them, accompanied by Truman, Julián's faithful dog, will share many surprising and emotional little moments, triggered by the hard situation Julián is going through, for just a few days.

Girl in the Window

A romantic drama partially set in Amsterdam, this standard tale starts out in a mining area in Holland where conditions are about as rough as they get. Two of the miners, Italians Federico and Vincenzo take off together for the city's red-light district, where the women pose in windows for prospective customers. There the duo meet Else and Carrel who are willing to leave their windows to spend a weekend at a resort with the two men. Soon Else has fallen in love with Vincenzo and the future of the two hookers, as well as the miners, seems to look brighter.

The Paradise Suite

The lives of six people, who seem to have nothing more in common than their faraway homelands, become inextricably linked in Amsterdam, the city they have chosen as their new home.

Tattoo, The First Adventure Of Pepe Carvalho

A man's body turns up on a Barcelona beach with a message tattooed on his arm: "I was born to revolutionize hell". Detective Pepe Carvalho is put in charge of the case, taking him from the back streets of Barcelona to the Amsterdam canals, with no effect whatsoever on his peculiar investigation methods.