The strongest man in the Netherlands (2011)

Directed by: Mark de Cloe | 90 minutes | drama, comedy, family | Actors: Bas van Prooijen, Suzan Boogaerdt, Loek Peters, Yenthe Dirks, Gonny Gaakeer, Finn Poncin, Dick van den Toorn

We know Mark de Cloe from ‘Boy Meets Girl Stories’ and ‘Life from a day’, the unfilmable novel by AFTh van der Heijden. In 2010, ‘Shocking Blue’ was released, a film that fits exactly in the vein of the filmmaker known for his poetic images. Teenage love often plays a role in De Cloe’s films. For Telefilm ‘The strongest man in the Netherlands’, the director did not resort to his tried and tested recipe, but made a film for the whole family. Something beautiful does blossom, by the way, but not only among teenagers, and that is not the focus of the film.

Twelve-year-old, red-haired Luuk lives alone with his mother. He is about to start secondary school and as the smallest in the class he is very afraid of that. His mother Dorien is single and has always raised Luuk alone. As a toddler, Luuk was told beautiful but made-up stories about his father: he was the strongest man in the Netherlands and so pulled a plane forward. Dorien never realized that Luuk always remembered these stories and took them for granted and therefore does not immediately know how to make the connection when Luuk suddenly pays a lot of attention to the local championships for the strongest man in North Holland… At these preliminaries for the national competition Luuk meets René. René still has bright red hair on the flyer of the competition, just like Luuk. Luuk is convinced that René (now with a nice smooth ball) is his father and addresses him after the match. A tentative friendship develops; Luuk, with the help of René, is able to compensate for his lack in height with muscle strength. Not only Luuk benefits from this new, somewhat unusual friendship, René also becomes more and more attached to the teenager. But there can be no question of fatherly love, can there be…?

‘The strongest man in the world’ is a fine, warm family film, which manages to escape the average thanks to excellent acting, the funny tone and the clever screenplay. The fact that the film is somewhat predictable is not a bad thing at all, there are more than enough elements in it that make you happy to buy it. For example, hilarious is the way Luuk and Minke, the tallest girl in the class with whom Luuk befriends, fool Dorien and the way René stands up for Luuk when he finally meets his real father… That scene is not just funny, but also relevant for the rest of this slightly absurd history. It’s a bit of a shame that the film goes a bit off track at the end with the appearance of dozens of other redheads, but you can also get over that thanks to the convincing acting and the heartwarming story. Prima Telefilm, which could easily have drawn full houses in the cinema.