Award-winning historical feature film Old Heart will premiere in Europe, at screenings for the Southern Dutch World War 2 Liberation Week. Taking place between the 20th and 22nd of September, the film will show in its hometown, Veldhoven, as well Leiden and Biesbosch National Park.
Reviewed positively by Indy Film Library’s Tony Moore, the story has also proven a hit with American audiences and critics alike. Adapted from an award winning novel by Peter Ferry, Old Heart has gone on to clinch best feature honours at the Marina Del Rey Film Festival in Los Angeles, along with best actress (Eva Doueiri) and best editing (Gene Gamache) awards at the Sweden Film Awards, and the best composer prize (Garth Neustadter) at the Italian Auguri festival.
Centring on a mixed-race love story, the movie provides a timely tale of courageous Brabant citizens, determined to save the lives of people struggling to survive during the hongerwinter of 1944-45. As well as paying tribute to Black soldiers, who fought the world’s greatest racist as part of a segregated American Army, the film also makes a strong case for elder independence.
Old Heart follows Black American GI Tom Johnson, who joins Dutch translator Sarah van Praag on a dangerous smuggling mission from the liberated Southern Netherlands, to northern cities trapped behind Nazi lines during the Dutch famine. During the trip, they fall in love. Sixty years later, Tom sabotages his Michigan family’s plan to move him to assisted living, and disappears on a flight to the Netherlands; determined to reconnect with the love of his life.
Filmed on location in Brabant and Michigan, this drama is Amsterdam actress Eva Doueiri’s memorable screen debut. She has previously filmed a video introduction for the film in Dutch, but will also be appearing in person after the screenings in the Netherlands. Doueiri will be joined by her co-star, Zaneta Adams, and producer/screenwriter Roger Rapoport, to allow an opportunity for audience conversation at all three venues.
World War 2 historian and author Robert Catsburg will also speak in Veldhoven and Leiden, discussing the Red Ball Express, the sole integrated Army unit, at the heart of Old Heart’s drama.
The schedule for the screenings in the Netherlands is as follows:
September 20th
15:00 and 20:15 at Theater De Schalm, Veldhoven
Bookings here
September 21st
10:30 at Kijkhuis Leiden, Leiden
Bookings here
14:30 at Biesbosch MuseumEiland, Biesbosch National Park
Bookings here
September 22nd
18:45 at Kijkhuis Leiden, Leiden
Bookings here
Further details on all the events are available via Old Heart’s website.
