Reedland (2025)

[Cremildo]

Sven Bresser’s first feature Reedland will break a 12-year hiatus for Dutch-language cinema in Cannes this year when it world premieres in the parallel Critics’ Week selection, and Deadline can unveil the trailer.

The haunting rural mystery drama revolves around reed cutter Johan, who discovers the lifeless body of a girl on his land and is overcome by an ambiguous sense of guilt. While he takes care of his granddaughter, he sets out on a quest to track down evil. But darkness can thrive in unexpected places.

The film also takes the spectator into the heart of the Netherlands’ enigmatic wetlands landscape, made up of vast reed beds and crisscrossing water channels, and its rural communities, similar to the one where Bresser grew up.

Real-life reed cutter Gerrit Knobbe makes his big screen debut as Johan, alongside young newcomer Loïs Reinders.

Reedland is the first feature by a Dutch director to premiere in Critics’ Week since Karim Traïdia’s The Polish Bride in 1998, and the first Dutch-language feature by a Dutch director to play anywhere on the Croisette since Alex Van Warmerdan’s Borgman in 2013. +