Cloaca (2003)

Directed by: Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen | 110 minutes | drama | Actors: Pierre Bokma, Peter Blok, Gijs Scholten van Aschat, Jaap Spijkers, Elsie de Brauw, Caro Lenssen, Marleen Stoltz

According to Van Dale, ‘Cloaca’ means ‘sewer’ or ‘a widening at the end of the intestinal tract in birds, reptiles and many fish into which the rectum, ureters and fallopian tube open’. In the film ‘Cloaca’ it is the word with which four old college friends greet each other. It shows typical student snobbery to greet each other with a Latin word, which is rancid in meaning, but chic in sound. It is inevitable that these highly educated men will eventually choose for themselves, because ‘cloaca animals’ are, after all, ‘the lowest order of mammals’.

Director Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen passed away on September 27, 2005, one day before his feature film ‘Leef!’ would premiere at the Netherlands Film Festival. In 2006 his last film ‘Ik Omhels Je met Duizend Armen’ will be released in cinemas. The loss of Van de Sande Bakhuyzen is a great loss for Dutch film. Van de Sande Bakhuyzen produced high-quality dramatic films, such as the Golden Calf-awarded Telefilm ‘Familie’ (2001), which film can be called the Dutch ‘Festen’. Like ‘Familie’, the film ‘Cloaca’ is based on a play by Het Toneel. The fact that ‘Cloaca’ is based on a play is clearly noticeable in the beautiful dialogues, you could say ‘more real than real’, because although it seems very realistic, in real life people talk a lot less nicely. The theater tradition is also reflected in the excellent acting by seasoned actors such as Bokma, Blok, Scholten van Aschat and Spijkers. It should be noted here that fortunately there are no ‘grand gestures’. Van de Sande Bakhuyzen understands that film lends itself to much more subtle facial expressions and glances than stage, since the viewer must be able to distinguish the emotions of the actors from a greater distance. That ‘strong but subtle’ makes the film ‘Cloaca’ possibly more impressive than the play.

Impressive about ‘Cloaca’ is not only the acting, but also the attention paid to the characters and their mutual relationships. They are characters of flesh and blood, for whom you sometimes feel contempt, then you feel pity. With Joep and Maarten, contempt predominates and with Tom and Pieter sympathy, which makes it even more tragic that the latter two suffer the most setbacks. The great thing about ‘Cloaca’ is that she doesn’t preach the cliché ‘friendship conquers all’, everything points to a tragic ending, but at the end you still feel violently shocked as a viewer. Your expectations are broken and according to some theorists that is precisely the hallmark of ‘higher art’. But the aesthetic experience is not lacking in ‘Cloaca’ either, it contains beautiful images, for example those in which Joep’s daughter is sprayed with water in the light of the stage lamps for Maarten’s play.

It is quite right that ‘Cloaca’ won two Golden Calves during the Netherlands Film Festival in 2003: the audience prize for best director and the jury prize for best acting performance. ‘Cloaca’ is a film that impresses and captivates from start to finish. This is the pinnacle of contemporary Dutch film.