The Polish Bride review

Battered and bleeding Polish prostitute Anna (Hendrickx) is found in a ditch by taciturn Dutch farmer Hank (Spijkers). The latter takes in the terrified girl, cleans her up and allows her to stay as long as she likes. Anna, though troubled by flashbacks of her past experiences, busies herself with housekeeping duties and begins learning Dutch. Meanwhile Hank, who faces foreclosure on his land from the banks, is visited by Anna's former `employers' - and they insist that she returns to `work'...

Set in the Gronigen Highland region of Holland, The Polish Bride is a spare, sensitive and atmospheric work. As he charts the gradual development of the unlikely relationship between its two very different protagonists, Algerian-born director Karim Traidia imbues the whole with nostalgia for a vanishing agricultural existence. The dialogue may be minimal, but the performances are nuanced, the attention to detail near forensic and the resolution emotionally moving.