Oliver etc. (2006)

Directed by: Sander Burger | 90 minutes | drama | Actors: Dragan Bakema, Maria Kraakman, Noël Keulen, Hans Dagelet, Ria Eimers, Jasper van Overbruggen

What if you live from childhood with the realization that you don’t have long to live? Sander Burger came up with this idea for his very first film through a conversation in a pub with a boy who actually had a heart condition that would prevent him from living past the age of thirty. This boy lived on his own terms and by the time he became eligible for a donor heart, it turned out that his body had destroyed his body so much that the transplant had no chance of success anymore. That this wasn’t a disappointment to that boy, but a relief stuck in Burger’s mind like ‘There’s a movie in here’.

When you see the film, it appears that he has taken the story of ‘the boy in the pub’ quite literally, but the underlying idea of ​​’living with death and not being able to live without’ continues to have an existential depth. Burger wrote the screenplay together with protagonists Dragan Bakema and Maria Kraakman (who are also a couple in real life). These two young actors portray their roles convincingly. Bakema gets the chance to express a wide range of emotions. He can be crazy and drunk, but also sad and romantic. His character is, however, intensely self-centered, which makes it a tour de force to make the viewer really empathize with this Olivier. Kraakman has to make much less effort as the sympathetic oboe-playing Carola, but she can indulge herself again in the more subtle acting, with one big quarrel to break through the modesty. However, not all secondary characters come across equally well, a sister (somewhere in the high mountains of Switzerland or Austria, where Olivier undergoes his heart transplant) is downright laughable, who speaks English with a horrifying Dutch accent. Olivier’s good friend could also use some acting lessons, although he does come across as the good-natured sucker he has to introduce.

There is nothing to criticize about the background music and the camera work also corresponds nicely with the moods: shifting restlessly from one person to another when the mood is nervous and drifting along with the drunken Olivier. The dialogues come across naturally and are occasionally very funny. That funny is also occasionally used in a forced relief in difficult situations. Perhaps it is because of the fact that the film, despite its theme, is hardly moving at all. Maybe the brother’s character just got too little attention. The story structure is also not surprising and the implied ending is very sweet by the hair. ‘Olivier etc.’ It’s certainly not perfect, but it turned out to be a successful film.