The Pocket Knife (1992)

Directed by: Ben Sombogaart | 90 minutes | drama, family | Actors: Olivier Tuinier, Verno Romney, Adelheid Roosen, Genio De Groot, Beppie Melissen, Maxim Hartman, Samantha Angenent, Priscilla Blanken, Roel Dekker, Esther Gast, Sietze Greydanis, Karin van Holst Pellekaan, Jaap Hoogstra, Kees Hulst, Heleen Hummelen, Frits Jansma, Ellen Röhrman, Sarah Sijlbing, Sebastiaan Spaan, Maria Tap, Wil van der Meer, Almara van Gijn, Kirsten Wilkeshuis

‘I’m only six. Tom, I have your knife. I beat the drum. I call my friend Tom. I wrote to you, searched the city. I got something from you, you know what. I was on the train, I was in the newspaper. I couldn’t find you, this is such a big country.’ An entire generation of Dutch and Flemish people will be able to remember this song verbatim. The film ‘Het zakmes’ (1992), which was also broadcast as a miniseries by the VPRO, kept both children and their parents glued to the TV in the early 1990s. The adventures of the by Olivier Tuinier – only ten years old at the time! – Mees Grobben interpreted in a sublime way all those years later still appeal to the imagination. A simple fact, thanks to the irresistible children’s logic with which it is told, becomes a compelling story. ‘The pocket knife’ rightly deserved the CineKid Award and director Ben Sombogaart was awarded a Golden Calf for best director. The film also performed well abroad.

Six-year-old Mees (Olivier Tuinier) is best friends with Tim (Verno Romney) at school. The two get into mischief together and make up their own ‘secret language’ by replacing all vowels with an ‘o’ (Tim becomes ‘Tom’ and Mees ‘Mos’). Then Tim tells that his family is moving to Flevoland. Of course, Mees is not happy about that. When he realizes he still has Tim’s pocket knife, he decides to return it. But Tim has already left and he hasn’t left his new address. However, Mees is not easy to catch and is determined to deliver the knife to its rightful owner. He doesn’t care much for his parents. His mother (Adelheid Roosen) is a celebrated opera singer whom he hardly sees and mainly knows from television images. He lives with his father (Genio de Groot), who is also busy with mother’s career and does not give home when Mees wants to present his problem. So the boy goes to investigate himself.

‘The Pocket Knife’ is one of the strongest Dutch youth films of the 1990s. This is largely due to Tuinier, who carries the film on his slender shoulders with a convincing performance. Tuinier is on the one hand a smart ass, a bit naughty and quite cunning. Just look at how he easily deceives his father (wonderfully silly role by Genio de Groot). On the other hand, he knows how to endear with his large questioning eyes and the clumsy way in which he discovers the adult world. Besides Tuinier and De Groot, Beppie Melissen also plays a fine role as the strict teacher of Mees and Tim. Of course, the adult characters rub shoulders with the caricatural, but that’s allowed in a family film like this one. The situations are recognizable and of all times (boyfriend moving house, absent parents), giving ‘The Pocket Knife’ a timeless character. Even though the film looks very ‘early 90s’. There are plenty of winks hidden in it for adults. The way in which the rudderless and not very consistent upbringing of Mees’ father is ridiculed, for example, or the way in which television has to endure quite a bit. There’s plenty to laugh about all in all.

‘The pocket knife’ is pure nostalgia. A charming, timeless film that is primarily aimed at young people, but will also strike the right chord with many adults. Ben Sombogaart manages to make a full-length, fascinating feature film with a simple starting point, which perhaps only towards the end (where developments suddenly go very quickly) lacks focus but otherwise maintains a constant level. And the film mainly owes this to Olivier Tuinier, one of the best youth actors the Netherlands has had. An endearing and talented little guy who wraps the audience around his finger without any effort. ‘The Pocket Knife’ is entertaining entertainment for the whole family.