The Dream (1985) User Reviews

Well worth seeing

[gelobter · 8/10 · 30 January 2003]

It's not often that Dutch films get seen outside of the Netherlands and this one certainly deserved to be. The plot is based on a true story from the turn of the 20th century, in which three brothers, all of them left-wing activists, were imprisoned for a crime they did not commit, partly assisted by false evidence given by the victims, one of whom is the embittered ex-lover of one of the brothers.

In the hands of a mainstream Hollywood director, the film would no doubt have been given the sledge-hammer treatment, i.e. everything in "black and white", goody-goody socialists and workers and baddie authorities. Instead, it is shown as life is, with its varying shades of grey. The hero (one of the brothers, played by Peter Tuinman) is a slightly annoying character: he is bombastic and loves nothing more than delivering long speeches in the best Fidel Castro tradition. The real perpetrators of the crime are fellow socialists and are only too happy to see their comrades falling victim to a miscarriage of justice. A local socialist hero turns out to be a coward: too frightened to get involved, he disappears abroad, despite having crucial evidence that could have proved the brothers' innocence. And, on the other side, the investigator is not a wicked man: he wants the real perpetrators to be punished but ultimately lacks the courage to take a stand. All this is portrayed with a lightness of touch that makes this a great film.

On the desolate and poor Frisian people

[eabakkum · 7/10 · 23 December 2011]

De dream The film De Dream is peculiar because of the fact that it uses the Frisian language (with Dutch subtitles). The Frisian are a nation of several hundred thousand people in the north of the Netherlands. The region tends to impoverish, since it could never free itself from its agricultural background. Therefore it is particularly gratifying to see a Frisian film about the Frisian history. The narrative targets social and judicial injustice. Since the society had always been agricultural, there never was a clash of classes. However, the farm workers had a hard and poor life, and therefore were susceptible to anarchism. At the end of the nineteenth century they were the founders of the Dutch socialist movement. Hence the title of the film: The (red) dream. In fact these workers called their first great socialist leader The Saviour.The narrative describes the social developments during this turbulent and remarkable period. A gentleman-farmer becomes the victim of a burglary, and the wrong-doers shoot one of his personnel, which seriously wounds him. The burglars were masked, and therefore could not be identified. Three brothers of the Hogerhuis family become under suspicion, but the evidence is at best circumstantial. The social relations reflect the strange habits, which tend to grow in closed agricultural communities. Wiebren, one of the brothers, had regularly slept in the farm, apparently in order to protect it from robbery. He seized the opportunity to have sexual intercourse with the maid-servant of the farmer, even after the burglary. However, the servant also pondered on a wedding with the gentleman-farmer. Eventually the farmer, the servant and the wounded worker bear witness that they had recognized the voices and the attitude of the Hogerhuis brothers during the burglary. The brothers are eventually convicted. It is interesting, that the advocate of the brothers was Troelstra, the man who would later become the leader of the Dutch socialist movement (see for instance the film Nynke). The narrative does not tell, whether the Hogerhuis brothers were the real wrong-doers. However, it provides clues that three other men had been involved. In addition it suggests, that the socialist inclination of the Hogerhuis brothers had an effect on the investigation of the police and directed the sentence by the judge. Which is highly plausible in view of the class justice of the time. In fact one of the Frisian socialists defected to the USA, and from there wrote a letter, that he had lent his dark lantern (found on the crime scene) to one of the three other men. The case was brought to the High Court, but the evidence was such a mess, that the Court decided to support the original verdict. Clearly the film propagates the message that the evidence was insufficient to put the Hogerhuis brothers in jail. It succeeds in grasping the living conditions of the primitive agricultural community. The geographical conditions (sea climate, and therefore much fog and rain) help in creating a desolate and mysterious atmosphere. It is an interesting and recommendable, albeit somewhat depressing and disagreeable, experience to watch the human relations in De Dream unfold.

Not renewing, but very well written

[philip_vanderveken · 7/10 · 29 August 2005]

When reading the title of this movie in a magazine that announced it and being a Dutch speaking Belgian, I thought that the title of this movie had to be some kind of printing error. I knew that this was a Dutch production and I was convinced that it should be called "De Droom" or "The Dream" in English, but not something in between the two. But to my own surprise this was the correct title, because this was not a Dutch spoken movie, but one in the Frisian dialect, making this the first time that I had to watch a Dutch movie with subtitles.

"De Dream" is situated in between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, in the Northern province of Friesland (I don't know how it is called in English, so I'll use the Dutch name for it). As everywhere else in Europe, the socialists are gaining a lot of strength among the poor part of the population. Since this is a very rural area, it's the group of poor farmers who have to work hard for some rich farm owners, that is very interested in this new ideology. When a farmer is robbed during the night and shots are fired, it doesn't take long before the authorities have a culprit. They are convinced that Wiebren Hogerhuis and his brother are their main suspects - Wiebren is one of the socialist leaders, he has a big mouth and has already been for quite some time a thorn in the flesh of the Dutch authorities - but in reality the man is innocent. However, because he has left the farmer's daughter after a long (purely sexual) relationship, she is willing to testify against him. This and the fact he's too stubborn to admit that he's innocent plus the fact that some of his so-called comrades prefer to stay mute, rather than to come forward to admit that they did it or to tell that they know who the real robbers are, mean that he faces several years of imprisonment...

Despite the fact that I'm used to watch movies with subtitles (we only get to see the original versions over here, our movies are never dubbed), I must say that it wasn't always easy with this movie. The fact that they regularly switched between Dutch and Frisian may not be noticeable to all the people that don't speak any of both languages, but when you get parts of a movie with and parts without subtitles, this can sometimes be a bit confusing. But that certainly didn't spoil my fun. The acting for instance was more than OK. I only know Huub Stapel from earlier productions, but all other actors were very nice to watch as well. Also very interesting was the story. Normally you would expect a storyline like: the poor socialist peasants can't do anything wrong, the government officials are the real bogeymen. Well, not this time. The line between good and bad, between red and orange,... wasn't always very obvious. That's also the reason why this movie had a more realistic feeling than what I expected at first.

Overall this is a very good, historically inspired movie that despite the fact that the subject on itself isn't extremely original anymore, still is worth more than a try. The acting is good, the story is very well written and the overall quality is more than OK. That's why I give this movie a 7/10.

6/10

[TheOtherFool · 6/10 · 29 September 2002]

Being a Frisian, watching this movie was an odd experience for me. First of all the use of my motherlanguage (is that even a word?). As it does in music, it doesn't quite get to me. It all seems so... close perhaps? It makes me feel pretty uncomfortable (as it does with usage of the dutch language as well. I prefer English). Anyway, the movie is well made, and the storyline is pretty interesting as well, set at the end of the 20th century when Communism and Socialism got a grip on the poorer half of the people (and, one could argue, the more righteous, but let's not get into that). What I do like is the fact that Verhoeff didn't make the socialists too sympathetic and the 'law' too harsh. On the other side, although I believe the movie is based on a true story I found some parts a bit hard to believe. Also I'm not such a huge fan of Tuinman, the central person in the movie. In short, not a bad movie (if you can stand subtitles), and one of the few big Frisian movies made. So check it out. I personally would like to give De Dream a 6/10.

A historical drama for the socialist dream.

[jangerrit · 9/10 · 19 September 2022]

@philip_vanderveken, Frysian is the English name for Fryslân or Friesland as Dutch speakers still tent call it.

Calling the Fryske taal a dialect shows a little lack of knowledge of the Dutch language map. Flemish is not a dialect of Dutch either.

In general the plot shows the struggle of a small group of brothers to stay loyal to the Socialist cause, while knowing the real criminals. On the other hand being acussed by a maid that just wanted to take revenge for being rejected as a bride.

At the turn of the 20 the century Socialism was considered an outlawed actvity, so the loyalty to the cause was not so strange as it may seem now.

Even if the brothers would have told the names of the real robbers, they would most likely be imprissoned for knowing them.