Cloaca (film) 4901314 215362507 2008-05-27T21:26:44Z 195.169.204.23 {{Infobox Film | name = Cloaca | image = Film poster Cloaca.jpg | caption = Film poster | director = [[Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen]] | producer = | writer = [[Maria Goos]] | narrator = | starring = [[Peter Blok]]<br/>[[Pierre Bokma]]<br/>[[Gijs Scholten van Aschat]]<br/>[[Jaap Spijkers]]<br/>[[Caro Lenssen]]<br/>[[Elsie de Brauw]]<br/>[[Marleen Stolz]] | music = | cinematography = | editing = | distributor = | released = [[2003]] | runtime = | country = [[Netherlands]] | language = [[Dutch language|Dutch]] | budget = | preceded_by = | followed_by = | website = http://www.cloacadefilm.nl/ | amg_id = | imdb_id = 0375662 }} '''Cloaca''' is a [[2003]] [[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[film]], directed by [[Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen]]. It is a film adaptation of the [[2002]] [[Play (theatre)|theatre play]] ''Cloaca'' written by [[Maria Goos]], who wrote the scenario for the film as well. The leading roles celebrate men in their 40's who were formerly student friends but since then have let their relationship go stale. They are played by: Goos's husband [[Peter Blok]] (Tom), [[Pierre Bokma]] (Pieter), [[Gijs Scholten van Aschat]] (Joep), and [[Jaap Spijkers]] (Maarten). Female roles were played by [[Caro Lenssen]] (Laura), [[Elsie de Brauw]] (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 film was conceived as a [[made-for-TV film]] (it was co-financed by the [[AVRO]]) but later got a cinema release. It won the public prize for Dutch film at a festival in 2003, was brought out on [[DVD]] in 2005. ==Plot== The career of [[homosexual]] art historian Pieter, who has been working as an [[archivist]] 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 [[painting]]s 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 sex|extramarital]] [[Adultery|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]] abuse. As a [[lawyer]], Tom wants to take the case of Pieter himself ("that will be my first case when I get out of rehab."). Joep cannot help with Pieter's problem now, because he's on the verge of being appointed. ("A homo, OK. But a stealing homo, that's impossible!"). 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. ("Sometimes someone runs around the stage naked in a substantive way, all right.") Joep is with him there ("a dress, she must wear a dress!") 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 cocaine. 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. ("Have I become a bad man?") Just when everything seems about to end well for Pieter, Joep withdraws from the matter because he has become Minister for [[Culture]]. ("I have never been here." "Good-day Tom, this was it then.") 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]]. ("Van Goppel did not know when something was finished. I do.") ==External links== *[http://www.cloacadefilm.nl/ Official website] {{nl icon}} *{{imdb title|0375662|Cloaca}} [[Category:2003 films]] [[Category:Comedy films]] [[Category:Dutch films]] [[Category:Dutch-language films]] [[Category:Drama films]] [[nl:Cloaca (film)]]