Het meisje met het rode haar

For years, director Ben Verbong searched for the negative of his successful debut film Het meisje met het rode haar (The Girl with the Red Hair) from 1981. Rumour had it that it had been destroyed, but Verbong refused to believe it. Fortunately, he turned out to be right, as it was rediscovered in 2025 in a warehouse somewhere in the Netherlands. The negative was taken to the Eye Filmmuseum and digitally restored there, with the help of Theo van de Sande, the cinematographer at the time. This war drama, based on the book of the same name by Theun de Vries and starring Renée Soutendijk, now looks better than ever.

Jannetje Johanna Schaft, from Haarlem, is studying International Law in Amsterdam when the Second World War breaks out. The occupation, and certainly the persecution of the Jewish population, begin to repulse her more and more, so in 1943 she joins a communist resistance group. Her alias is Hannie, her nickname: the girl with the red hair.