''Cloaca'' is a 2003 Dutch film, directed by

Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen Willem Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen (Arnhem, 13 November 1957 – Amsterdam, 27 September 2005) was a Dutch film director. Born in Arnhem, the son of Nicolaas Jan van de Sande Bakhuyzen, he made his acting debut in the 1986 Academy Awards, ...

. It is a film adaptation of the 2002 theatre play ''Cloaca'' written by Maria Goos, who wrote the scenario for the film as well. The leading roles celebrate men in their 40s who were formerly student friends but since then have let their relationship go stale. They are played by: Goos's husband

Peter Blok Peter Stephanus Blok (born 7 April 1960 in The Hague), known as Peter Blok, is a Dutch stage, television, film, and voice actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production ...

(Tom),

Pierre Bokma Pierre Henri Martin Bokma (born 20 December 1955 in Paris) is a Dutch stage, television and film actor. Bokma received his professional training at the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts. In November 2007 he won an International Emmy Award f ...

(Pieter),

Gijs Scholten van Aschat Gijs Scholten van Aschat (born 16 September 1959) is a Dutch actor. He has appeared in more than sixty films since 1980. He is the father of Reinout Scholten van Aschat. Selected filmography References External links * Gijs Scholten ...

(Joep), and

Jaap Spijkers Jaap may refer to: * Jaap (given name), Dutch given name (short for "Jacob") * Johnny Jaap Johnny Jaap (August 12, 1895 – May 1, 1974) was a Scottish-American soccer inside right. He played seven seasons in the American Soccer League and one ...

(Maarten). Female roles were played by Caro Lenssen (Laura),

Elsie de Brauw Elsie de Brauw (born 1960) is a Dutch actress. Early life and education Elsie de Brauw was born in The Hague, The Netherlands, in 1960. She first studied theology, and received a BA in psychology from the University of Groningen. She then stu ...

(Conny), and Marleen Stolz (Russian prostitute). Eric Schneider acted in a supporting role as Brest, Pieter's boss's boss. Blok, Bokma, Goos, Scholten van Aschat, and Van de Sande Bakhuyzen know each other from the

Toneelacademie Maastricht The Toneelacademie Maastricht, or Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts, is a college of dramatic arts located in the city of Maastricht in the Netherlands. It is part of the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences. Programmes The training found at ...

. The film was conceived as a

made-for-TV film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a terrestr ...

(it was co-financed by the

AVRO Avro (an initialism of the founder's name) was a British aircraft manufacturer. Its designs include the Avro 504, used as a trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster, one of the pre-eminent bombers of the Second World War, and the d ...

) but later got a cinema release. It won the public prize for Dutch film at a festival in 2003, and was released on DVD in 2005.

Plot

The career of homosexual art historian Pieter, who has been working as an

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can cons ...

at a municipality, has been going nowhere for 20 years: he is ignored by his colleagues, and for many years now, as a sort of revenge, he has been taking a painting from the depot in the cellar on his birthday. Brest, his boss's boss, takes Vermeulen out for a meal. Pieter expects good news, but instead hears he must return the paintings: in any case the eight paintings by Van Goppel (who died recently) which all of a sudden have become worth a lot of money. This produces a major problem, because Pieter has sold four of the Van Goppels in order to pay for his apartment. If anyone can help him, it would be his old student friends Joep and Tom. Joep, a politician who is slated to become the next Minister for Foreign Affairs, has been turned out of his house by his wife Conny because he proved to have an extramarital affair with Jennie. He thought he would be able to stay at Tom's, but Tom went insane a couple of months earlier as a result of

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

abuse. As a lawyer, Tom wants to take the case of Pieter himself. Joep cannot help with Pieter's problem now, because he's on the verge of being appointed. The rancid Maarten comes also; his pretentious stage play "The Wheel of Ixion" is about to have its opening night, in which Joep's almost 18-year-old daughter is to play Laura, a role where she stands naked on the stage. Joep is with him there and does not know that Maarten had sex with Laura. The friends celebrate Joep's birthday by hiring a prostitute for him, but that leads to tears from Joep and a brawl with Maarten who also wanted to use her services. The friends go to the première of Maarten's play. Joep's mistrust about his daughter acting in the play disappears. He gets a chance afterwards of a reconciliation with his wife, but bungles it totally. Tom goes crazy and goes into the city to obtain

. Meanwhile, Pieter tries to convince his colleagues to attest that the Van Goppels had been given to him. When the friends return to Pieter, they look back on their past. Just when everything seems about to end well for Pieter, Joep withdraws from the matter because he has become Minister for Culture. Tom breaks down now entirely and runs away. Maarten, who still has not confessed to Joep what he did with his daughter, continues to wait until Pieter comes home and gives him the bad news. Pieter cuts one of his arteries open in the bathroom.

References

External links

* {{Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen 2003 films 2003 comedy-drama films 2000s Dutch-language films Dutch comedy-drama films A-Film Distribution films Dutch-language comedy-drama films