Dear Karim Traidia,The Polish Bride is a very touching love story of two lonely people. It is a great study of a relationship in a rural setting. While there is a crime element, that is not really the crucial part of the film. In fact, the crime aspect was a bit of an aberration.A beaten up prostitute arrives at the house of a Dutch farmer. He takes her in and their relationship develops as she intrudes into his lonely existence. You said a lot of things very subtly, Karim. The revival of the lonely farmer's life after the prostitute enters his space. Maybe a comment on the breakdown of the family in Europe? The farmer's sadness about the destruction of the old ways of life when you could live off the land (that beautiful spoken word song with a simple piano foregrounded this theme). Trafficking and ill-treatment of beautiful Polish women.The dialogs are sparse because they don't speak the same language. This perfectly complements the tranquil mood of the film. I loved the way some of the scenes were framed. Like when the couple are sitting apart in the front room. The door in the middle of the frame is slightly open. You can see the trees swaying in the wind through the open door. There were so many beautiful shots of the pastoral setting. It really is a beautiful and idyllic film.Best Regards, Pimpin.(8/10)

I love this movie, but for slightly different reasons than mentioned here. I'm from the Netherlands, and I grew up in a village in the eastern part of Friesland, which is very similar to the countryside of Groningen.Halfway during the movie I noticed there were tears in my eyes. Oddly enough, it wasn't during an emotional scene between the main characters. It was a shot of the countryside of Groningen. The scenery wasn't extraordinarily beautiful or anything. Yet somehow, it had managed to perfectly capture the feeling the Dutch countryside gives me whenever I'm visiting my parents.And then I realized it wasn't just the scenery, it also was the slow pace of the movie, the lack of dialogue between the two main characters, or the lack of much happening at all during most of the movie. The solitude of the farmer's life, the gentle moments between the main characters, the two of them being all alone in their own little world.That one of the characters was a Polish woman on the run from pimps is just a McGuffin, this movie really isn't about that. It's about the feeling of living on the north-eastern Dutch countryside. If cinematography feels a little odd now and then, it's because it's completely focused on capturing the feeling of being on a Dutch farm, the story and it's characters being less important.People are remembered. Exciting events are remembered. What movie is about remembering the feeling of living at a certain place at a certain time? OK, and what if we're not talking about someone's memories of growing up? Yeah, those kind of movies are rare, aren't they? This movie is one of them, and one of the best.When people are going to watch this movie in a couple of decades, if they're still capable of investing themselves into a slow paced, technically inferior movie with an unexciting storyline compared to whatever they'll be used to by then, they're going to experience what it's like to live the the sobering, lonely yet somehow also magical and sometimes beautiful life of a Dutch farmer and his Polish bride.

Anna, an abused Polish immigrant forced to work as a prostitute, is rescued by Henk, a taciturn and reclusive farmer. Gradually, as Anna recovers, Henk slowly wins her trust.The film is a subtle, tender love story. Anna, in turn, affects Henk's life bringing a sense of vitality (she sings in the empty house) which brings the emotionally repressed farmer out of his shell. Clearly, this is a man with much love to give but who has retreated himself for one reason or another.It's a very slow paced film, perhaps too much so, but then it is more a character study of two very different, but equally lonely people falling in love.My major criticsim of the film is its ending. Anna's 'employers' return and are brutally murdered; I thought this was quite well done resolving the thriller element of the plot quite effectively. However, Anna & Henk, finally consummate their love immediately after the murders. This seemed out of place and harmony with the rest of the film. It might have been better if the lovers had consummated their passion first before the return of the dreaded pimps, thus adding to the tension of whether their relationship would survive.An interesting film and I think one of the Dutch reviewers was a little harsh on his nation's recent film output. 'Antonia's Line' and 'Character' are very distinctive films; they may not be huge 'hits' or garner many plaudits, but they are original. In a cinematic world which is highly derivative, that is no such bad thing.

A lonely farmer falls in love with a woman who literally falls into his life. I knew what was going to happen, as would anyone who's ever been to the movies before, but I was riveted by the journey to the inevitable conclusion, and that's what made this film so enjoyable. Only one element mars the believability of this love story, and you'll know it when you see it.