Merijntje Gijzen's Jeugd

Movie
Original title	Merijntje Gijzen's Jeugd
Country of production	Netherlands
original language	Dutch
Publishing year	1936
length	101 minutes
Rod
Director	Kurt Gerron
script	Heinz Goldberg A. M. de Jong
production	Loet C. Barnstijn
music	Max Tak Hubert Kuyper
camera	Akos Farkas
occupation
Marcel Krols : Merijntje Gijzen Piet Bron : Goort Perdams (De Kruik) Mimi Boesnach : Janeke AM de Jong: Pastor Frida Gonissen : Nelleke Bill Benders : Border Guard Aaf Bouber : Janske Harry Boda : Flierefluiter Matthieu van Eysden : Gijzen's father Joekie Broedelet : Gijzen's mother Kees Brusse : Arjaan Gijzen Jeanne Verstraete : Mrs. Walter

Merijntje Gijzen's Jeugd (in German: Merijntje Gijzens Jugend ) is a Dutch feature film youth drama from 1936 by Kurt Gerron . Co-screenwriter AM de Jong also wrote the novel of the same name.

action

In the Netherlands in the 1930s. Merijntje Gijzen is a blond, little boy who is largely on his own. His youth is pretty bleak. One day he met the tramp Goort Perdams, known as “de kruik” (in German: “The jug”), and made friends with him. Merijntje and “Der Krug” do many things together, such as fishing and hunting. But the tramp is just as much an outsider as Merijntje and is watched with suspicion by the villagers and rejected.

One day there is a serious incident when “Der Krug” gets into a tangible argument with a border guard and knocks him down. The tramp is then put in jail. Once again, Merijntje fears that the few people who were close to him - most recently the pastor who died, and finally the girlfriend who left him - would be left alone and cast out. But this time the teenager does not give up, is no longer ready to let fate choke him down: Merijntje Gijzen decides to visit his new friend in prison.

Production notes

Merijntje Gijzen's Jeugd was written in mid-1936 and premiered on September 17, 1936. The film was rarely shown outside of Holland and there was no German premiere.

In the name of the German Reich Commissioner for the Occupied Dutch Territories, the film was initially confiscated and finally banned on November 26, 1942 because of its supposedly “negative tendency to portray a criminal”.

criticism

Ulrich Liebe saw here “a poetic description of the friendship between a small Brabant village boy and a vagabond” and summed up: “… a quiet, melancholy film.”

Individual evidence

1. ↑ document on amdejongmuseum
2. ↑ Revered, persecuted, forgotten. Actor as a Nazi victim. Beltz Verlag, Weinheim and Basel 2005, ISBN 3-407-22168-1 , p. 52

Web links

• Merijntje Gijzen's Jeugd on amdejongmuseum
• Merijntje Gijzen's Jeugd in the Internet Movie Database (English)