Manu Verreth

The movie made after the hit series "De Kollega's" starring the same characters, but rather tragicomic. When November 11, an official holiday (Armistice), falls on a Tuesday, the public service often gets an extra day off on the preceding Monday, but only after a formal ministerial decision, and this time it gets all the way trough the hierarchy to the right office- and then isn't read, so all the colleagues turn up, only to be told they should have stayed at home. It gets worse: works in progress and clumsiness end up blocking the way out both by lift and staircase, so they are stuck on their floor, apparently without a phone, while there's nobody outside who can hear and rescue them. Forced to keep their conversation going, some secrets get unearthed, and it's not a very pretty picture they got of each-other.

In this film version of the Dutch-language classic ('heimat'-)novel by Flemish author Felix Timmermans, the title character is a city-boy from Lier who after recovering from a life-threatening disease changes his life completely and his name to the self-invented Pallieter. He moves in with Charlote, a naive, caring relative in the country, where he starts frolicking, no longer caring for image, career or possessions, but concentrates on enjoying life -such as a draftee relative's Brueghelian wedding- and finds love with Marieke. A dark story-line however is when projected work on the river in the name of economical progress threatens the rural landscape they have fallen in love with...

Spoed is a Belgian action drama TV series produced in the Dutch language in Belgium since 2000. The series is also shown on both Flemish/Belgian TV and Dutch TV. The series is directed by Johan Thiels and Guy Thys. The series has produced 217 episodes to date. It may be compared to the American TV programs ER or Chicago Hope.

De Collega's is a classic Belgian comedy TV series about colleges working in an office of the Ministry of Finance. It originally aired for three seasons between 9 September 1978 and 21 February 1981 on the BRT. A total of 37 episodes was made. The series was written by Jan Matterne, who also directed the first season. The second and third seasons were directed by Vincent Rouffaer. In 1988 a feature film was released, De Kollega's Maken de Brug. The series was re-aired numerous times, most recently in October 2008.