325. Nynke

Song - In Nije Dei (De Kast)

Movie: Nynke (Pieter Verhoeff, 2001)

Constantly experiencing the ending of The Godfather is not good for one's health. Especially not when the doctors confuse cause and effect. Monic Hendrickx plays Sjoukje de Boer who became one of the most important Dutch children's authors, writing under the pseudonym Nienke van Hichtum. The film focuses on her early life and her marriage to Pieter Jelles Troelstra, one of the key figures of Dutch socialism. They spend their early years together blissfully quoting great literature in between passionate frolicking in the Frisian (Nynke is the most successful Frisian-language film in the Netherlands) peatlands, but things start going south when Troelstra develops an interest in the fate of the working man. The family house becomes the de facto Party base reducing Sjoukje to a background figure forced to serve tea to strategising revolutionary-minded men. She wants to contribute, but late 19th century politics are no woman's business, and Verhoeff keeps framing her as a stranger in her own house, looking from afar at adjacent rooms full of activity alienating her from her husband.

Sjoukje is presented as a little sceptical of the extreme, bordering on irrational, fervor of her husband, and especially of the crowds surrounding him, but coming from a less privileged background, she has a keen eye for the lives of the masses and a good understanding of why and how socialist ideas might benefit them. She is eager to express her views and writing dilutes her estrangement, but a woman asserting her independence can only be a symptom of a hysteria that can turn into something worse without treatment. Thankfully there is electroshock therapy! Verhoeff presents these scenes without any bells and whistles, showing experienced, soberminded doctors calmly conducting a standard medical procedure. They even explain the science behind it all, highlighting why everyone is concerned when these well-tested practices only have an adverse effect on Sjoukje. That can only mean that she is further gone than everyone feared, requiring extreme measures. She has to stop writing immediately and her children must be sent to study abroad. 

For much of the film, Sjoukje has little agency over her life. All decisions on her behalf are taken by her husband, who is fully convinced he is acting rationally and with her best interests in mind. However, it's not without sympathy for him either. In addition to The Godfather, Verhoeff seems also excessively influenced by impressionist paintings, especially those showing the upper class being leisurely in their Sunday clothes. The social/political gatherings in the film of course take place around the same time as many of these paintings were created, but their visual resemblance also seeks to emphasise how removed these socialist politicians were from the people they identified with, and how that can lead to identity crises. Ultimately the film is much less interested in politics (its main point in this regard is that socialism can only be effective if it incorporates feminism) than in exploring how psychologically confusing it can be to have to act as a woman in a man's world or as a socialist in the upper class.