Themes: Haunted By the Past, Life Under Occupation, Crimes Against Humanity
Main Cast: Derek de Lint, Monique Van de Ven, John Kraaykamp, Huub van der Lubbe, Marc van Uchelen
Release Year: 1986
Country: NL
Run Time: 149 minutes
Plot
The Dutch-filmed Assault was based on a novel by Harry Mulisch. Presented in a non-linear, flashback/flashword fashion, the film tells the story of a physician whose family was killed by the Nazis during World War II. This came about after the family's neighbors dragged the body of a dead collaborator to their doorstep. The doctor spends his entire adult life trying to find out why his neighbors had betrayed his family. At various isolated moments of political upheaval in Europe, the doctor comes closer and closer to the truth. During a 1984 anti-missile rally, the mystery is solved--and the answer is more complex than anyone back in 1945 had imagined. The hero's "growth" is thus placed in the context of the international turmoil of the four decades following the war. Marc van Uchelen plays the main character as a 12-year-old, while Derek de Lint portrays the adult physician. In a nicely underplayed symbolic touch, Monique van de Ven is cast in a dual role, playing de Lint's wife in the "present" scenes, and an older woman who is murdered by the Nazis because she shelters young van Uchelen in the flashback sequences. The Assault was the "best foreign film" Academy Award winner of 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Elly Weller - Mrs. Beumer; Mies de Heer - Elisabeth; Akkemay - Sandra; Edda Barends - Mother Steenwijk; Pierre Bokma - Student; Kees Coolen - Gerrit-Jan; Ludwig Haas - General; Kees Hulst - Student; Frans Vorstmann - Father Steenwijk; Piet de Wijn - Mr. Beumer; Hiske van der Linden - Karin Korteweg as a Young Girl; Amadeus August - Haupsturmfuhrer; Ab Abspoel - Man in Cafe; Manon Alving - Mrs. de Graaff; Cas Baas - Henk; Tabe Bas; Harold Bendig - German Officer; Mike Bendig - Fake Ploeg as a Boy; Filip Bolluyt - Student; Krijn ter Braak - Uncle Peter; Caspar de Boer - Peter Steenwijk; Oliver Domnick - SD Officer; Karl Golusda - German Officer; Matthias Hell - Sergeant; Guss Hermus - Mr. van Lennep; Okke Jager - Vicar; Nico Jansen - Police Sergeant; Anton Kothuys - Narrator; Norman Longdon - English General; Kenneth Oakley - Westminster Abbey Guide; Paula Petri - Woman in window; Horst Reichel - Officer; Monique Spijker - Servant Girl; Lisa Takacs - Sandra as a Young Girl; Les Wiertz - Herring Dealer; Wim de Haas - Mr. Korteweg; Eric van Jeijst - Mr. DeGraaff; Wilem van Ransum - Prison Guard; Michel van Rooij - Cor Takes as a Young Man; Eric van der Hoff - Bastiaan; Eric van der Ronk - Simon
Credit
Dorus van der Linden - Art Director, Anne-Marie van Beverwijk - Costume Designer, Fons Rademakers - Director, Kees Linthorst - Editor, Jurriaan Andriessen - Composer (Music Score), Rogier Van Otterloo - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ulli Ullrich - Makeup, Theo Van de Sande - Cinematographer, Fons Rademakers - Producer, Allard Bekker - Set Designer, Harry Wiessenhaan - Special Effects, Gerard Soeteman - Screenwriter, Harry Mulisch - Book Author
