Click on thumbnail to view larger image.

Tranlated frontcover:
He left everything behind to look for his twin brother.

Translated backcover:
The life of 40 year-old Paul de Wit looks perfect in all ways. He has a great job, a happy family and even a mistress in Paris. But it soon becomes clear Paul isn't pleased with this life. An undetermined feeling of restlessness. Where this unrest originates from becomes clear when he accidentally sees his doppelganger he thinks is his twinbrother Philip who was deported in WW II (the moment can be seen on the frontcover, the one where he holds up the magnifying glass.). Driven by a spark of hope, he finally admits to his obsession. He leaves everything behind and sets out to find Philip....

Derek de Lint as
"Paul de Wit/Nathan Blum"

Director - Rudolf van den Berg (this was his first feature film and he received the 1984 Dutch Academy Award for Best Director for it).
Country - Netherlands
Language - in Dutch and French with English subtitles
Production Company - East-West Classics
Producers - George Sluizer and Ann Lordon
Writers - Annemarie van de Putte and Rudolf van den Berg (Based on the book La Place de la Bastille by Leon de Winter.)

Cast:

Derek de Lint - "Paul de Wit/Nathan Blum"
Geert de Jong - "Mieke"
Evelyne Dress - "Nadine"
Loudi Nijhoff - "midwife"
Ischa Meijer - "Professor Polak"
Yann Colette - "taxi driver"
Dora Doll - "Mrs. Friedlander"
Iboya Takacs - "Hanna"
Kim Bagmeijer - "Myriam"
Pierre Vial - "Mr. Weinstock"
Tamar Baruch - "Batseba"
Frank Schaafsma - "Hein de Vries"
François Guizerix - "barkeeper station"
Anne Lordon "librarian"
George Sluizer - "clochard / 1st taxi driver"
René Bourdet - "Photographer"
Walter Kous - "School Headmaster"
Henk Votèl - "porter"
Jelte Faber - "student"
Thijs Keverkamp - "student"
Oona Giesen - "student"
Marieken Stolk - "student"
Monique van der Zouw - "student"

De Lint plays the leading role. Psychological thriller about a history teacher who meets his double and thinks he's his long lost twin brother who was killed during the war by the Nazis.

THE FOLLOWING WAS TRANSLATED FROM DUTCH & REWRITTEN by Richard van Bilsen: Derek de Lint plays an excellent role as Paul de Wit, a man who seems to have tried everything to forget the fate of his family (his parents and his twin brother were killed in WW II). He doesn't look jewish, he doesn't have a typical jewish last name, he married a non-Jewish woman (Geert de Jong), he is not religious. He appears to have well-organized life, with his two lovely daughters, a seemingly happy marriage and his job as a history teacher. But within, the creature stirs (made this up myself. I meant to say that something was bothering him, don't know if this is correct English - Richard) and he is obsessed with the little things that gave the world history that certain twist. He wants to write a book about what would have happened if during the French revolution in 1791 the royal family had succeeded in escaping to Luxemburg. If in Varennes their identy wouldn't accidentally have been revealed. The history teacher thinks about changing the past, because he would like to change his own. Because he begins to show signs of stress, he gets a week off that he wants to use for a trip to Paris to do some research for his book about 'Varennes'. By chance he gets into a romance with a jewish girl (she writes for a magazine) that did accept her jewish background. A picture, taken on the Palace de la Bastille shows a man that could have been Paul twin brother. Paul is obsessed with the idea of meeting this man. In a dreamlike sequence Paul was on his way to his supposed brother.After an accident with the taxi he gets a ride from a 18th Century coach, that appears to be going to Varennes. The man turns out not to be a de Wit but Nathan Blum.

Premiered: May 10, 1984

Leon de Winter's bio and bibliographie (Dutch)

Review of Bastille by John Hartl (English)

Rudolf van den Berg Filmography (English)

Article about van den Berg (Dutch)

Thanks again to Derek's fellow Dutchman, Richard van Bilsen, for scanning the video box cover and providing description information and translations.

Credits: Nethlandfilm.nl , IMDb
Translations: InterTran™