Els Dottermans

Do we still sing the praises of folly like Erasmus, or is it trendy again to be smart? And if so, who is the smartest? Who can talk about the medals won at the Olympic Games in London, but at the same time knows who Captain Haddock is? Who knows whether Lacan was a hair growth product or a psychoanalyst and can also program their own digital television? Who has déjà vu when leafing through the Encyclopedia Britannica and when reading the interviews with the new Miss Waregem Koerse? Who, oh who, is the smartest person in Flanders, Belgium, Europe, and by extension, the world? That is determined by a fierce battle between three fellow human beings. Every day, someone is eliminated, someone who may not be the smartest, but who is perhaps cherished in their family circle because of their many other talents. The others advance and are joined by a new challenger every day.

Former Amsterdam police detective Floris Wolfs has been transferred to the police department of the south-Dutch country town Maastricht. His metropolitan experience nicely complements the local expertise of his new country colleagues, who know the folks. Slowly he fits in, while solving countless crimes together with his female partner Eva van Dongen.

Zone Stad is a Flemish-Belgian TV series about a police-department located in Antwerp. In the series, police officers solve various crimes, which are shown as realistically as possible.

Witse is a Dutch language crime drama produced by Belgian broadcaster VRT and broadcast on their één channel. It is also shown on BVN. First broadcast in 2004, as of 2010 the programme comprises eight series with a ninth and final series planned for 2012. It stars Hubert Damen as the eponymous Witse, a driven inspector in the Belgian federal police based in Halle. It is one of the most popular Flemish television programmes with some 1.6 million viewers. There are also Witse books. The first three were based on the last two episodes of each season, but since 2010 every six months a brand new story is published, written and invented by established Belgian writers, as Bob Van Laerhoven and Bart Van Lierde. The music for Witse is composed by Steve Willaert.

Jasper Vloemans works in a small chocolate factory that employs mentally challenged workers to package its products. He falls in love with one of his colleagues: Tina, a girl from Kosovo. When Tina is suddenly deported to her home country, Jasper and his friends set out on a road trip to find her.

Female detective Hannah Maes leads a police squad, specialized in sexual offenses. A smaller, but important part of the story is about the private quest of Hannah. She investigates a past robbery at her home and the subsequent brutal rape of her mother.

When a prodigal son sends his family's empire into crushing debt, his estranged brother returns to Antwerp's diamond district to pick up the pieces.

Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010. In Bruges, some 200 cyclists and their entourage are getting ready for the 94th Tour of Flanders. A sea of supporters awaits them along the route, while millions more follow Flanders' finest on radio or TV. With the race as a backdrop, De ronde tells the story of a number of people who, like the cyclists, have everything to gain or lose today. The series originally had nine episodes, but these were recut to seven episodes for the DVD.

Guy Moeyaert is a well-meaning colonial official in a jungle district of the Belgian Congo in the last years of white colonial rule, after the Second World War, a paternalistic system where the state, unable to be properly present all over the vast, sparsely populated country, collaborates systematically with the Roman Catholic missions -in his post, father Alexis- and private enterprise, in case mainly the mining company -locally represented by engineer Lenaers- which also helps out with money and labor for such public tasks as road building. Even his grip on the natives is weak, as they live under hereditary tribal leaders, which must take from its people what they are legally obliged to deliver to the state in taxes and labor; coercion is done by force, including whipping on the bare buttocks, which Guy hates. Guy also starts a love affair with Hélène Vermarcke, who gets estranged from her husband Luk (the three were already friends in Belgium) as he devotes all his efforts the their plantation, leaving her alone with the native staff and their son, or is it Guy's? The adultery makes his position in the white community far weaker then is compatible with his position of theoretical authority without sufficient independent means. He also depends heavily on his educated black clerk Gabriel Ndazaru and ambitious white deputy Arthur. It all gets worse for everybody as the call for 'dipenda', black independence as in Ghana, gets stronger, in time even accepted 'in principle' by the Belgian government which plans a gradual transition which the idealist Guy supports but all other whites oppose, while the natives have neither patience nor insight and start attacking every symbol of the old regime, regardless of its objective value, and soon white people and 'collaborators' too- it gets physically dangerous, but Guy won't budge or flee...

In 1940s Amsterdam, Jewish Council co-chairman David Cohen and his daughter Virrie have their bond tested as they pursue increasingly opposing ways of safeguarding their community under Nazi rule.

During his travels along the Mediterranean and ‘Across the Low Countries’, Arnout Hauben often brought up stories from the past, but now the walking travel guide of VRT 1 is going one step further. In ‘Interview with history: the Belgian royal family’, he talks to the Belgian kings, played by top Flemish actors. These conversations form the thread running through the episode and are interspersed with reports and archive material.

25-year-old medical student Tristan Devriendt's life is turned upside down when he suddenly develops cancer and thus becomes a patient himself. Ambitious dreams are abruptly interrupted and give way to a life-and-death struggle. Tristan, his family and friends find themselves in a confusing mix of emotions with humour and love as an unexpected side effect.

Tine Embrechts is almost fifty years old and is approaching menopause. A door that she does not want to open right away, but that almost every woman has to go through sooner or later. In Menopauzia, a three-part series that will be shown on VRT 1 this autumn, Tine prepares for menopause, with a lot of humor and occasionally some self-mockery. ​

Kassa Kassa is a tragicomic series set in the Stans brothers' supermarket, a small, independent neighborhood supermarket on the verge of bankruptcy. The colleagues form a close, warm group of friends, but their well-intentioned actions often make things even more difficult.

Two young police officers find themselves torn between collaboration and resistance as they navigate Nazi-occupied Antwerp during World War II.

May 1940. As Europe trembles on the brink of war, two lives cross within Brussels’ legendary Flagey building, the beating heart of national radio. Elza, a young actress making her debut in radio drama, meets Berre, a gifted soundman with a magical ear. She is enchanted by storytelling; he finds solace in sound. Their encounter sparks a love that dares to exist beyond the rising shadow of their time.

After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.

After 17-year-old Kevin is released from prison for violent behavior he goes to live with his aunt and her family including Sammy, his cousin. While apprenticing as a plumber he starts to integrate with Sammy’s group of friends who are still in high school. Like all teenagers they just want to party and ignore any responsibilities, but one of them is hiding a problem at home that will put the entire group in jeopardy.

Vincke and Verstuyft are one of the best detective teams of the Antwerp police force. When they are confronted with the disappearance of a top official and the murder of two prostitutes, the trail leads to the almost retired assassin Angelo Ledda. Since Ledda starts showing symptoms of Alzheimer's, it's getting more and more difficult to complete his contracts. When he has to murder a 12-year old call-girl, he refuses and becomes a target himself. While Vincke and Verstuyft are chasing him and counting the corpses, Ledda is taking care of his employers.

The twinbrothers Sietse and Hielke Klinkhamer want to raise money for their ill friend, Marieke.

A police officer investigates the case of a man shot dead in a room locked from the inside. A suicide? Then where's the gun?

Tom Vansant is an emergency physician from Brussels who is desperately searching for his daughter who ran away from home and is now missing for eighteen months. He meets a girl of whom he thinks that she knows what happened to his daughter but the girl doesn't want to talk about her past. In his search to find out why she doesn't talk about it he ends up in a small village in the Ardennes where no one wants to help him discover what really happened.

Nine-year-old Lisa discovers her sinister new friend is the ghost of the dead twin of Lisa's mother. Then Lisa's father also begins to suspect his wife of hiding a terrible secret, resulting in deadly consequences…

For all his life Frank Goudvis has tried not to follow in the footsteps of his father. When his father is mysteriously murdered, Frank loses his alibi for his cherished passivity and decides to travel to the crime scene.

Muriel moves from a small village to the big city of Brussels, hoping to start an independent life working as a museum guide. She rents a room from Laura, who has a room to spare now that her mother is in hospital. Laura is a vital and candid woman who has a child-wish but leads a very chaotic life. Meanwhile, Muriel's mother has a hard time accepting that her daughter leads a life of her own now, and she also faces some changes at the factory where she works. The movie follows the interconnected lifes of these three women of three different generations, who all face different problems.

Joseph learns that his son and his companion have just perished in an accident. They were expecting a child via a surrogate mother in Belgium. What will become of their future baby? Is Joseph the legitimate grandfather? Carried by the promise of this birth which will prolong the existence of his son, the sexagenarian goes to meet the young Flemish woman with a fierce and indomitable character.

A 17 year old girl runs away form home and finds shelter with a 50 year old man with a psychiatric past.

Shy, gentle half-wit Dennis, whose only obsession is train-spotting, is released early on account of good behavior after a rape sentence. His parents who run a modest barbershop, skeptic André and Rita, desperately try to keep him out of girl trouble, but his victim's sister Barbara starts a hate campaign. After another girl reports abuse, Dennis is jailed and beaten black and blue daily. Barbara's boyfriend, lawyer Thomas Verelst, accepts to help 'pro deo' (no cost) and pleads that Dennis belongs in a mental institution.

Four security guards are going to work at the world-famous dance festival Tomorrowland. While there, Luc discovers that Dirk has feelings for... a man. But no one believes him (Ingrid promised Dirk she would keep his secret many years ago and Smos is busy trying to launch his own dance hit).

We follow the lives of six men searching for true love or just a little happiness at a time when men sometimes have no idea how to be men and what women actually expect of them.

A woman falls in love with a married, Belgian man. She finds out that he's married too late... although it's the second thing he says. The rest of the film is about the struggle of the man between his two loves, and of the woman not able to finish the hopeless and dangerous relationship. The title "tot ziens" (au revoir, a farewell greeting that implicates that one will see eachother again), is the ironic description of the film, which is about going away for good and then coming back again, because something is always stronger than your ratio.

Max and Tikkelotje own an unsuccessful theatre company. When Tikkelotje notices Ramon - the faithful companion to Saint Nicholas - playing the guitar and singing, she decides to kidnap both him and Slechtweervandaag, Saint Nicholas’s trusty steed. Saint Nicholas is devastated, but eventually he pulls himself together and goes around the houses to collect the children’s wishlists. An adventure involving assorted people then ensues as he tried to beat the clock to rescue the hapless pair.

Teenage girl Robyn is desperate about joining her older brothers on parties, but they don't want her around. When their parents leave for a business trip, Robyns little brother manages to realize what she has never been able to. She totally loses control.

A young mother called Maria is returning home after a long abscence. Her kids have created their own fantasies as to why their mother has been away for such a long time.