EXCLUSIVE:  Carice van Houten hits the Berlinale this month in Mees Peijnenburg’s Dutch-language drama A Family and Deadline can unveil the trailer.

The feature sees the Game of Thrones and Black Book star return to the big screen for the first time in six years, after a slew of TV dramas including thriller Malice, in which she co-starred opposite Jack Whitehall and David David Duchovny.

Peijnenburg’s emotional drama follows a family breakup through the perspective of 14-year-old Eli and his 17-year-old sister Nina, as they oscillate between loyalties and anger toward their parents and a longing for emotional safety and a sense of home.

“I ­immediately felt a deep connection to the project; it’s a human story about family dynamics and our universal need for emotional safety when the world beneath us begins to tremble,” said van Houten.

She is joined in the cast by Pieter Embrechts as the father and rising young talents Celeste Holsheimer and Finn Vogels who take centerstage.

It is the second feature from Peijnenburg who is regarded as one the Netherlands‘ hottest rising directing talents. His debut Paradise Drifters premiered at the Berlinale in 2020, following in the wake of his short films A Hole in My Heart and Even Cowboys Get to Cry which played at the festival too.

The production reunites Peijnenburg with Paradise Drifters cinematographer Jasper Wolf who has worked on a dozen films since, including David Verbeek’s Dead and Beautiful, Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir’s A Letter From Helga, Guy Nattiv’s Golda and Halina Reijn’s Babygirl.

It is produced by Iris Otten and Nathalie van der Burg of Amsterdam-based Juliet at Pupkin, in co-production with producer and director team Michiel and Lukas Dhont of The Reunion, makers of Cannes Caméra d’Or winner Girl and the Cannes Grand Prize winner and Oscar-nominated Close.

“Rarely is a divorce drama shown from the children’s perspective. I wanted to explore that territory where arguments are fought over the children’s heads and how the children become a mirror of their parents’ behavior. I wanted to make a film about the interplay between being adults and children, and in particular the way adults become children in their doing,” said Peijnenburg of the film.

Paradise City Sales (formerly Memento International) is handling international sales on the film which premieres in Berlinale’s Generation 14plus section.