Films Directed by Women

2016 film

Three wacky sisters try to save their inheritance from their supposedly gay brother, who suddenly appears with a fiancé in tow. If he gets married, their father's will stipulates that he gets the family hotel in Portugal. So the sisters put aside their personal differences and set out to stop the wedding at all costs.

If global economy came to a sudden stop what would be the effect on families worldwide? People in different countries or continents might not seem to be interrelated but there is more than meets the eye and we might be more connected than we sometimes like to think.

A group of middle-aged former bandmates reunite to scatter the ashes of their deceased lead singer, only to have their bond put to the test by the unexpected presence of one of the friends' twenty-something girlfriend.

Claire lives with her wealthy adopted parents in a luxurious and isolated house in the woods. She discovers a wounded and bleeding boy her age in her family's garden shed. The boy is a young drug courier from Afghanistan; shot and wounded after serving his purpose as human packing material. Claire decides to keep the boy a secret. He slowly recovers under her care; and they fall in love. When the drug dealers return and Claire's family is due to move back to the city; they decide to flee; though Claire finds it difficult to outrun her past as an abandoned child.

2008 film by Paula van der Oest

Seventy-year-old Agnes takes the ashes of her dear Robert and travels to their regular holiday cottage on the Scottish island of Mull. On the way, two Dutch runaways, the ten-year-old girl Chris and her younger brother Tommie, sneak into her car. The children warn Agnes they will flee again if she calls the police. In the secluded house, beautifully located near a bay with a view of the sea, the elderly woman and the children gradually grow towards each other. Chris is confident and short-tempered, and dominates not only her younger, pigheaded brother, but also old Agnes, who loses herself in memories of Robert. Meanwhile, Agnes has to withstand the people who want to take over the house from her. The surroundings play a major role in this adaptation of Renate Dorrestein's novel about family, trust and secrets.

1998 film by Paula van der Oest

A widowed Latvian father's quest for a much-loved Dutch pen pal, whom he hasn't heard from in three decades, provides the basis of this comedy-drama. The father is accompanied by his traumatized and mute eight-year-old son whom he had to kidnap from a Riga hospital. Together, the two flee towards Holland where the father Yuris hopes to find his long-lost friend Marie, whom he remembers as a great beauty. During the long journey, father and son have several funny adventures, many of which occur because neither father nor son speak much Dutch. They finally arrive at Marie's door empty-handed. What they find, gives them little hope, for the lithe young idealist of Yuris' dreams has become middle-aged and cynical.

2004 film by Paula van der Oest

On 2 December 1975, a journalist is one of many passengers on the slow train that is kidnapped near Wijster by young South Moluccans. After some terrifying moments, he makes contact with the hijackers and starts acting as their go-between. Meanwhile, his wife and daughter, as well as his mistress keep themselves abreast of things through the media. The train hijacking lasts for twelve days and claims a few lives.

2005 film

Ehemalige Opfer der Kinder"heil"anstalt "Am Spiegelgrund" und deren Freundinnen, Freunde und Angehörige geben Auskunft über ihre traumatischen Erlebnisse, die ihr Leben bis heute bestimmen

Two Romany teenagers fall in love after being sent away from their poor village in Eastern Slovakia to beg on the streets of wealthy Vienna. For the first time they get a glimpse of happiness, but it doesn't last long.

Amy, an 11-year-old girl, joins a group of dancers named “the cuties” at school, and rapidly grows aware of her burgeoning femininity—upsetting her mother and her values in the process.

1920 silent German film directed by Muhsin Ertuğrul

2020 film directed by Catarina Vasconcelos

Gwen is a teenager living in a small coastal town. Lise is her best friend, a city girl who comes every year with her family to spend the summer. This year things are different though; at first Lise might not come at all, and when she does it is obvious that Gwen grew up faster than she did.

Forbach, East of France, today. Mario, a man without much ambition, except where love is concerned, is back to square one after his wife left home. He now must raise his two adolescent daughters by himself, while going through some sort of a teenage crisis of his own. 14-year-old Frida blames her father for their mother's leaving and she develops ambivalent feelings towards her new girlfriend. 17-year-old Niki will soon leave home. Until then, she lives the good life. Mario can't help but lose the women he loves. Yet they must all agree to let one another go.