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Film and series about the allowance affair to be released in September

By ANP/RTL Boulevard·July 9, 2024 · Updated: July 9, 2024

RTL Boulevard

Both the feature film and the series that were made about the benefits scandal will premiere in September. The movie 'The Hunt for Meral Ö' will be in cinemas on September 5. The NPO series 'The Toeslagenaffaire' will premiere at the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht at the end of September and will be shown on NPO 1 this autumn.

This was reported on Tuesday by BNNVARA, which created the series, and distributor Paradiso Films, which releases the film. At the beginning of 2021, BNNVARA announced that it would make a series about the benefits affair. Director of this project is Joram Lürsen, who previously included the film Resistance Banker and the series Day & Night made. The screenplay is by Alma Popeyus and Hein Schütz. The pair also previously wrote the series The Enclave, about the fall of Srebrenica, and the film Fortune Seekers.

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BNNVARA will soon announce more about the cast and content of the three-part series. The exact broadcast date is also not certain yet.

The movie The Hunt for Meral Ö. highlights the affair through the eyes of the Turkish-Dutch Meral, who lives with her daughters in Almere and is plagued by debt and stress. When social detective Ron begins to infiltrate her life, she is forced to make increasingly radical choices to save her family from the clutches of agencies. The film was directed by Stijn Bouma, who previously made a much-discussed documentary in which victims of the affair told their story for the first time.

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The leading roles in The Hunt for Meral Ö. are played by Dilan Yurdakul and Gijs Naber. According to the creators, the release of September 5 was chosen because the House of Representatives returns from the summer recess that week and, with the release of the film, 'the topic will hopefully be higher on the agenda of the new cabinet'.

The Rutte III cabinet resigned in early 2021 due to the benefits affair. Tens of thousands of parents have been affected by the actions of the tax authorities in recent years and many fell into debt. Former Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in his farewell speech at the end of June that he trusts that “our successors will continue on the road to recovery”.

Three years ago, Videoland also announced another series about the benefits scandal. But RTL says when asked that “the series is no longer in our making”.

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