''The Assault'' ( nl, De aanslag) is a 1986 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Harry Mulisch. The film was directed and produced by

Fons Rademakers Alphonse Marie "Fons" Rademakers (5 September 1920 – 22 February 2007) was a Dutch actor, film director, film producer and screenwriter. His 1960 film '' Makkers Staakt uw Wild Geraas'' was entered into the 11th Berlin International Film Festi ...

. The main character is played by both

Derek de Lint Dick Hein "Derek" de Lint (; born 17 July 1950) is a Dutch film and television actor, known for playing the role of Derek Rayne in '' Poltergeist: The Legacy''. Life and career Dick Hein de Lint was born on 17 July 1950 in The Hague in the N ...

(in the present) and Marc van Uchelen (as a youth), whereas

Monique van de Ven Monica Maria Theresia "Monique" van de Ven (; born 28 July 1952) is a Dutch actress and director. Life and career From 1973 until 1988 she was married to Dutch cinematographer and director Jan de Bont, with whom she lived in Los Angeles for a n ...

plays two different roles, one after the war (his first wife) and one in the war (a woman who participated in the assault and whom he meets later the same night in a dark police cell).

Plot

In January 1945, as the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

in Europe is reaching its end, much of the Netherlands remains under

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

occupation. One night, a Nazi collaborator is shot dead on his bicycle. The family whose house he falls down in front of moves the body in front of the neighboring house, where the Steenwijk family lives. The Nazis, assuming that the Steenwijks killed the collaborator, execute the parents and older brother together with a large number of hostages. Burning the Steenwijks’ house to the ground, they imprison the younger brother, Anton. The other person in his unlit cell is an older woman. Anton can see only her mouth. She spends the next few minutes comforting him until he is removed from the cell. After the Netherlands are liberated from Nazi occupation, Anton remains shaken by what has happened. The story moves between the end of World War II and the 1980s, following Steenwijk's often reluctant quest for the truth about the events of that traumatic night.

Cast

as Anton Steenwijk * Marc van Uchelen as Young Anton Steenwijk *

as Saskia de Graaff / Truus Coster * John Kraaijkamp as Cor Takes *

Huub van der Lubbe De Dijk (English: The Dike) is a Dutch rock band which formed in 1981. The band is named after Zeedijk, a street in their hometown Amsterdam. Their music can be described as a mixture of soul, blues and rock 'n roll, with lyrics sung only in ...

as Fake Ploeg * Elly Weller as Mrs. Beumer * Ina van der Molen as Karin Korteweg * Frans Vorstman as Father Steenwijk * Edda Barrends as Mother Steenwijk * Casper de Boer as Peter Steenwijk * Wim de Haas as Mr. Korteweg * Hiske van der Linden as Young Karin Korteweg * Piet de Winj as Mr. Beumer * Akkemay Marijnissen as Sandra * Kees Coolen as Gerrit-Jan

Awards

The film won the 1986

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

, the

Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is a Golden Globe Award presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Until 1986, it was known as the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film, meaning that any non-American film coul ...

and the Golden Space Needle of the

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees. The SIFF runs for more th ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Assault, The 1986 films Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners Dutch World War II films Films based on Dutch novels Films based on military novels Films set in the Netherlands 1980s Dutch-language films 1980s English-language films Films shot in the Netherlands 1980s German-language films Films directed by Fons Rademakers Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe winners Golan-Globus films 1986 multilingual films Dutch multilingual films

Plot

Cast

Awards

See also

References

External links