Feature version of a three-part television production which theatre director Gerardjan Rijnders based very freely on the notorious Dutch child-porn affair in the village of Oude Pekela. Rijnders has made a close study of the real course of events in the village, but in the end he was more fascinated by the amount of fiction that became entangled in events – experts talk of mass hysteria without any apparent cause – and the feverish way the mass media reported on the commotion in the village. Rijnders’ production ended up as 100 percent fiction, although the country he mocks is really Holland.Central themes in Oude Tongen are fear and hypocrisy and how these feelings influence and stimulate each other. But the film is also about politics, family, adultery, television, video, unemployment, drugs and brothels on farms (a typically Dutch phenomenon?)The story is set in the spring in and around the fictional village of Oude Tongen (which literally means Old Tongues). In a period of weeks, events take place that will keep people talking for years.The form chosen by Rijnders is partly inspired by the famous American TV series Twin Peaks by Mark Frost and David Lynch. Like this renowned model, Rijnders wants to approach reality via delusions, dreams and fantasies. But Twin Peaks is only a reference; Oude Tongen is primarily a typical Dutch drama.
