Catacomb (2018)

Directed by: Victor D. Ponten | 94 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Willem de Bruin, Kevin Janssens, Liliana de Vries, Werner Kolf, Orion Lee, Charlotte Vandermeersch, Björn van der Doelen, Jade Olieberg, Mark Rietman, Loes Schnepper, Nizar El Manouzi, Dinah Snijtsheuvel, Stijn Kosterman, Man-Lung Tang , Glenn Helder, Gilbert Sparen, Lodi Remmen, Sem Klarenbeek, Marc Dollevoet

Quite remarkable actually that two of the largest entertainment industries have hardly united successfully to date. Good movies about football can usually be counted on one hand, if there are so many to be found. Yet it is almost inevitable that the world behind football should provide enough material for some very good films.

No glamorous fuss or successful story of an ordinary boy who grows into a top football player: in ‘Catacombe’ we follow former talent Jermaine Slagter (great role by Willem de Bruin, known as one of the rappers of ‘The Opposites’). Jermaine spends his days at a club that is somewhere in the lower echelons of professional football and sees his future in limbo as his club doubts whether his expiring contract should be extended. These are not the only worries that Jermaine is confronted with: after the divorce he sleeps with his wife Naomi (Liliana de Vries, ‘Men hearts’) in a cheap hotel and has huge gambling debts with a shadowy underworld figure (Mark Rietman who gets the chance to elitist bank advertising image). When an Asian suddenly signs up with a lucrative three-year contract, Jermaine is faced with the choice of getting involved in dubious figures and match-fixing (intentionally influencing a match for the benefit of gambling stakeholders), or to be in the same financially vicious to keep wandering around in circles.

While the football world is usually known as an exorbitant environment where even mediocre footballers make a fortune, there is often less attention for the lower echelons, where full-time professionals sometimes earn below the minimum wage. It is therefore not surprising that these players are the most vulnerable to dubious influences and lucrative yet shadowy deals. Director Victor D. Ponten previously directed the beautiful road movie ‘Rabat’ together with Jim Taihuttu and was involved as producer on ‘Wolf’: just like ‘Catacombe’ a film that focuses on young men who seem to fall just outside society and therefore have to get involved in crime and thus slowly reject their environment. A refreshing perspective, especially considering that many of the recent Dutch (major) feature films focus on wealthy figures with everyday problems that are hardly worth mentioning. Films such as ‘Wolf’ and now ‘Catacombe’ focus on people who struggle with the harsh world they find themselves in, sometimes confronted with an almost hopeless situation.

‘Catacombe’ is a particularly grim film, in which the main character can hardly break free from the oppressive web of crime and match fixing. Jermaine is not a hero who gets involved in shady practices unwillingly, but one who has struggled with a gambling addiction and skyrocketing debt from the start. By getting involved with even more dubious figures, Jermaine finds himself more and more entangled in an increasingly narrow vicious circle of hopelessness and powerlessness. This powerlessness is strongly expressed in the scenes in which Jermaine sees his personal life inadvertently mixed with the criminal: with his daughter at the fair, or with his authoritarian father. Somewhere you hope for redemption for Jermaine, but the reality turns out to be more grim and unruly. It is also sad how Jermaine slowly pulls his environment into his fall, with his best friend and teammate Kevin (Kevin Janssens, ‘Revenge’) in addition to his family.

It’s a pity that the dialogues have flaws here and there: it usually remains the biggest flaw of Dutch films. In any case, the script in ‘Catacombe’ is the weak spot, because at times the film struggles with a lack of tension, especially the middle part feels a bit dragging. And that the influence of commerce is enormous within film (and football) should come as no surprise, but that advertising is so blatantly and sometimes even spoken word is over the edge. A sponsoring watermark will probably be happy, but advertising in this artificial and obviously scripted way is very ludicrous. Sponsoring will be necessary for the financially insecure Dutch film world, but can also be exaggerated. Ponten undeniably shows that he has talent and story and perspective offer an oh so welcome change in the Dutch film offering. Invest in a really good script now.