Polleke

After making the TV series and feature film Madelief, director Ineke Houtman again chose to do an adaptation of a Guus Kuijer book. The children's film Polleke is a modern version of Romeo and Juliet. According to Houtman, it is a film about unattainable love, the multicultural society, religion and broken homes. The story is set in a multicultural neighbourhood in a big city. Central character is Polleke, a self-willed eleven-year-old girl who is raised by her eccentric single mother. She is besotted with love for Mimoen, the Moroccan boy living across the street. They write each other notes and send them along a string stretched between their flats. But Mimoen is predestined to marry a girl from Morocco, and one day he is no longer allowed to `go with' Polleke. The string is cut. This is not Polleke's only worry. Her junkie father, also a poet, causes problems and to make matters even worse Polleke's mother falls in love with her schoolteacher. Helped by her grandparents, Polleke tries to make order out of the chaos surrounding her. Awarded a Golden Film.