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© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 47 movies from IJswater Films BV
Holiday bus driver Mario has spent his entire life shuttling old age pensioners to the sunny south with his own travel company 'Paradise Trips'. Today, on the verge of his own retirement, Mario has to bring a motley crew of alternative partygoers to a psychedelic festival in Croatia. The journey soon turns into a fascinating trip that confronts Mario with his own prejudices and his long-lost son.
Aug 2015
A skeptical Vatican priest travels to the southern Dutch province of Limburg to investigate a reported miracle, only to get entangled in a series of apparently miraculous events that undermine his vocation.
Apr 2023
Sam wakes up, gets ready and goes to do his daily job. And then the unexpected happens. A bomb explodes in the center of the shopping mall where he works. He drags himself towards the entrance to save the victims. One by one he pulls them out, until something terrible takes place. In complete hysteria he runs off till he falls down from exhaustion. A woman's voice makes him raise his head. She's one of the victims he saved. She wants to know why the suicide bomber did it. This encounter projects him back in history and even in a surreal world. Thereafter he runs into everyone he saved and feels that their defeat shows many parallels with his own. Even his confrontation with the wrongdoer isn't that straightforward as he thought it would be and confronts him with the fact that guilt and innocence can be pretty much alike.
Nov 2010
Drama on the dawning love between a Polish woman and a farmer. Anna is forced to work in a brothel, but manages to escape. She's found, exhausted and scared, by Henk (the farmer) who offers her a place to stay, but her past chases her.
May 1998
When Sarah looks out of her window she sees several situations between couples take place. It is like she is watching her own life and all the choices that could change it. In the end she can take a decision about her own life by looking at others. The couples tell a story about a world in which you can loose the direction of your life just like that. And find it again.
Sep 2007
A story about the 14 year old Heleen who makes the transition of child to adult with pain and effort in the wild 70s. While her parents going to divorce she is exploring the world of sex, drugs and love on her own.
Nov 2005
Iris and Kimberly, two close friends from Brabant, share a passion: synchronised swimming. They have been a duo for so long that their whole lives seem to run synchronously. When the day of the big event dawns, both their talent and their friendship are put to the test. Are they both motivated enough to maintain perfection? Is their friendship really as harmonious as they think?
Sep 2013
Mirte is a cleaner in the reception centre for asylum seekers at the airport. She tries to forget her past through routine. When the charismatic West African Luc is brought in, Mirte seems to get a grip on her life again. A film about loss, fleeing and love from an unexpected corner.
Jan 2013
A mosaic film about a group of people in the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands strugging with loneliness, hope and love.
Oct 2011
Rayco, an 8-year-old boy, and his sister Paula, 14, kill time as they anxiously await crabs arrival in Tenerfe. But their mother has become pregnant by a foreigner and their lives could change before the crab arrives on the island.
Mar 2023
Samuel (35) and Sarah (33) Ofori, together with their daughter Faith (15), have fled their home country of Ghana. When working as a police officer, Samuel was on the trail of a corruption scandal, but has since then felt that his life is in danger. Finally, after years of waiting, they are offered housing in The Netherlands. Their new home is in a wealthy neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. The young family is amazed when they enter the beautiful, large house: could they finally start over here? However, their happiness proves to be short-lived, for, as Samuel begins to observe frightening events, this home turns out to be just the start of a disturbing new nightmare.
Jan 2024
A young boy and his young sister are playing on a rubbish dump, acting out their parents' divorce. For this they use their father's things which their mother brought to the dumping ground out of anger. The girl only wants to use their fathers things, but the boy finds something that he finds much more interesting.
Sep 2004
The Spanish family Gabarre-Mendoza is celebrating a birthday, when it is interrupted by a police inspection. In ‘La Cañada Real’, a shanty town just outside Madrid, the inhabitants are forced to leave their illegal homes. Each member of the family struggles in their own way with their unstable position.
Mar 2021
When a cab driver reluctantly has to pick up his last customer of that night in a deprived neighbourhood in Rotterdam, it turns out to be a lady that gives this last ride an unforgettable twist.
Dec 2020
When his mother decides it is finally time Herbert moves out, the reserved municipal civil servant ends up in his deceased dad’s conked-out old timer. The housing market is overheated, so finding a house is impossible. After several frantic efforts, due to a mistake he is admitted to a students’ dorm. For the first time, Herbert has to learn what it means to share a bathroom, shower, kitchen and living room with lots of people. And the students suddenly have to deal with a forty-something in their chaotic party house. Will these improbable housemates manage to find domestic peace?
Sep 2024
Renate is left behind in a department store after breaking up with her boyfriend there.
Sep 2001
Hannah misses her father after he leaves for Argentina. Although they're not together anymore, they will always share their love of tango.
When there is a break-in in her home, interior buyer Helen (38) is in shock. Many of her possessions with which she had dear relationships are taken from her. With this theft, she discovers that she has lost a part of herself that is not easy to replace.
Oct 2019
At his sunnet, his circumcision party, 7 year old Turkish boy Cihan, finds out that becoming a real man takes more of him, then just being circumcised.
Oct 2012
When a successful young artist named Benjamin is involuntarily committed, he is completely baffled, for he doesn’t remember anything about what happened. Life in the psychiatric institute is violent and absurd, but step by step, Benjamin seems to come to grips with himself again. He starts to realize how narcissistic he used to be. When he is released and meets up with his old friends, he is confronted with yet another truth.
Jun 2016