04-02-2025 Lucas, expertly portrayed by Mads Mikkelsen, is a teacher in a small Danish community. He lives a lonely and fairly dull life, divorced and attempting to obtain custody over his teenage son, but finds solace in teaching the children at his local kindergarten. All is going well, until a little girl from his class decides to tell a small lie, which turns his quiet life into a living nightmare. As with films like Druk and Festen, director Thomas Vinterberg dissects social roles in tight-knit communities through razor sharp written drama. In Jagten we see what happens when an entire town turns itself against an individual who can’t seem to prove his innocence. It’s horror without being horror, steering away from cliches while we as the viewer follow a man’s unescapable social downfall. A poignant and suffocating watch.

22-04-2025 Imagine you could meet yourself. Not a single thing changed, just an exact copy of your own person. This is the premise of Mike Cahill’s Another Earth; “Earth 2” is discovered, a copy of our own world, with which we establish contact and even the possibility of travelling to it. In this 2011 soulful sci-fi we follow Rhoda (Brit Marling) who attempts to establish a connection with John (William Mapother). Though at first her motivations are merely out of self-interest and guilt, the two begin forming a deeply emotional bond throughout the film. Another Earth is a reflection on grief and human connection, as well as a slow-paced meditation on individuality and space exploration. A philosophical and ultimately human experience.

27-05-2025 Tonight, we turn VERA into your average on-the-corner tobacco shop. Blue in the Face shows the ins and outs of a small tobacconist, run by Auggie (Harvey Keitel). With appearances by Lou Reed, Michael J. Fox, Jim Jarmusch, Madonna (as singing telegram!) and Rupaul, among others, this 1995 slice-of-life comedy lets its characters freely discuss life, love and tobacco. Blue in the Face is the witty sequel to Smoke (1995), made with improvised material shot during the making of Smoke and the rest of the film shot in the following six days, using the very same Brooklyn store. Although some characters reappear in Blue in the Face, it’s a wholly different film with a distinct Jim Jarmusch-like deadpan comedy, a bunch of new faces and philosophies. No need to have watched Smoke prior; come over this Tuesday and philosophize with us. No smoking inside though, please.

17-06-2025 Joe Buck (Jon Voight) is a hustler from Texas who seeks to live his American Dream in New York. He quit his dishwashing job to pursue a life of accompanying wealthy women to make ends meet, with varying success. In his quest he meets Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a low life con man who aids him in his journey. The two strike an unlikely friendship, navigating the New York hustler lifestyle together. Midnight Cowboy is a film about the underbelly of the late sixties New York society, showing the peaks and valleys as they try to make a living from gig to gig. Even more so, the film is about how the two protagonists develop their friendship and how the more they fight and bicker, the more fond they seem to become of one another. Filled with subtext, Midnight Cowboy allows the viewer to gage the strength of their friendship for themselves and whether there is the possibility for something more developing between them. Accompanied by a timeless John Barry soundtrack, this 1969 classic makes the unseen seen and the unspoken heartfelt.

09-09-2025 There is something wrong with Carol White, but nobody knows quite what it is. Carol is a typical suburban housewife whose life abruptly changes as she progressively shows more and more signs of illness. As she seeks help in various corners her questions remain unanswered, nobody can diagnose her unwellness or denies there is even something wrong to begin with. Carol’s quest leads her more and more off the beaten path as we slowly enter an often unseen world of the undiagnosed diseased, who all seek answers and understanding. Carol White’s deterioration has been masterfully portrayed by Julianne Moore with pitch perfect direction by Todd Haynes. A successful and longstanding collaboration; Safe marks their first out of five collaborations, other notable admissions being 2002’s Far From Heaven and more recently, 2023’s arthouse-hit May December. Although at face value Safe is a fairly straight forward arthouse drama, like May December, its dark undertones are constantly palpable. Its modus operandi is psychological horror yet it serves as a massive allegory for the AIDS epidemic, as deterioration and a lack of understanding from peers are common themes. Haynes mentioned that in research he was specifically interested in the work of Louise Hay, whose books claimed that self-love would heal illness. Safe is about attempting to find healing through any means possible yet more so about finding community and mutual understanding. A rough watch showing some of society’s near-forgotten victims.

14-10-2025 The Taste of Tea follows the adventures of a family in the rural town of Tochigi. Mother Yoshiko wants to revive her career as an animation artist while taking care of her family. Father Nobou works as a clinical hypnotist. Son Hajime struggles to make friends and is trying to seduce a girl. Daughter Sachiko is constantly followed by a giant version of herself. Grandfather Akira practices fighting poses and is preparing for his own death. And uncle Ayano, a music producer, drops in to get his life together after living in Tokyo. In episodic vignettes we watch along with the Haruno’s. Described as a surreal version of Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, the film is hilarious, magical, absurd and has a lot of heart. The tea tastes strange tonight, but ultimately very sweet.

11-11-2025 Traditionally we celebrate “Sint Maarten” in the Netherlands on November 11th. A day on which children march through the streets carrying lanterns. ringing doorbells and singing a special Sint Maarten song, after which the adults hand them some candy as thanks for their performance. Our own fusion of Trick or Treat and Christmas Carolling, if you will. As the final children make their rounds on the last streets of the night, we move inwards to our dark and cosy cinema for our own interpretation of an evening of Dutch delight. The man of the hour? Dutch singer, realitystar, swimsuitmodel, bon vivant and actor: Dries Roelvink. In I Love Dries, Dries Roelvink gets kidnapped by an infertile couple and they need the singer for a very sinister reason.. Tom Six, director of, yes, The Human Centipede trilogy, brought his vision to the silver screen in 2008. Although, since Dutch cinemas weren’t interested in showing the film, a tour of screenings in the national hotel chain of the Van der Valkhotels was put together. That tour also did not go entirely spotless, to paraphrase Wikipedia: “On Monday the 27th of October, the screening DVD got stolen in the hotel. On Tuesday October 28th it reappeared, it turned out to be a prank.” Anyway, November the 11th (2025) we will screen the film in Zienema, Groningen. With a cast consisting of Dutch cult legends such as René le Blanc, Chiel Montange, Sugar Lee Hooper and our Dries this is promising to be a night filled with Dutch “gezelligheid”. -Ruben

09-12-2025 By mechanical error, a group of U.S. Bombers mistakenly receive instructions to bomb Moscow. The President, played by Henry Fonda, personally attempts to get the pilots out of the air, supported by his staff led by professor Groeteschele, played by Walter Matthau. Tensions rise as the American government attempts everything to stop this attack from happening; an American-Soviet clash would have a catastrophic outcome. Although this 1964 Cold War thriller was released in the same year as Dr Strangelove, it is a wholly different experience. Thematically there is plenty of overlap, but where Kubrick opted for a satiric approach, Sidney Lumet masterfully turned Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler’s eponymous novel Fail Safe into a razor sharp, high stakes political thriller. A tense and gripping watch; come by on this cold December night and experience the Cold War tensions with us.

12-01-2026 Fans of our previous (VHS) screenings of Tron and Lawnmower Man, take notice! Tonight we present Hackers, an incredibly campy crime film filled with state-of-the-art 90’s digital animation, stars like Angelina Jolie, Johnny Lee Miller en Matthew Lillard and a stellar techno soundtrack to accompany it, featuring the likes of Underworld, the Prodigy, Carl Cox and many other icons of the time. Hackers is about a group of teens who are, you guessed it, hackers. By day they are attending their high school, by night they fight crime on the world wide web, featuring some of the best fashion takes ever put to film. The hackers, nicknamed “The Phantom Phreak”, “Cereal Killer”, “Lord Nikon” and “Acid Burn” on this occasion attempt to stop “The Plague” in his criminal activities; launching the “Da Vinci” virus to capsize five oil tankers. The stakes could not be higher and the same goes for our anticipation. Come by for this special Monday screening to take a breather before the madness of Eurosonic starts; we are going to get cosy and campy, just how we like it.

03-02-2026 The boys from Spinal Tap are back! In Spinal Tap II: The End Continues we follow Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) as he documents Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins, and Derek Smalls’ road to one final concert. As they struggle with finding a new drummer, settling in with their new manager and preparing for their new show, they also make some new, very famous friends. The original This is Spinal Tap from 1984 is an absolute classic in the hard-rock mockumentary genre and in this reunion film, the cast gladly perform their mostly improvised satire all over again. As Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer tragically passed away on December 14th, 2025, we would like to honour him by screening his last ever film. He was an incredibly prolific filmmaker, touching on many different genres such as fairy tales (The Princess Bride), romcoms (When Harry met Sally), horror (Misery) and many other adventures. Besides being one of our favorite filmmakers, Rob also was a liberal political activist, advocating for causes such as LGBTQ+ rights, early childhood education and environmental protection. A filmmaker extraordinaire and a stand-up human being, celebrated tonight in this rare Dutch screening.

17-02-2026 After being imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su gets released back into the real world. Without knowing anything about his capture, he finds himself in an immensely difficult situation, adapting to modern life. Then, Oh Dae-Su finds out from his captor that if he doesn’t find him within 5 days, his captor will kill himself and Dae-Su will never find out the truth.. Oldboy is an incredibly intense vigilante/thriller/action/etc. genre bending powerhouse of a film. Consisting of stellar camerawork, magnificent story telling, superb performances, an unforgettable ending and a whole lot more to admire, it is generally regarded as one of the best films of all time, and rightly so. Not for the faint of heart, as film critic Roger Ebert put it: (it’s a) “powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare”. A must watch for every movielover who likes their films to be on the more intense and dark side and always worth a rewatch for those who have seen it before.

10-03-2026 Having just lost her eyesight, author Ingrid adapts to her new condition in her Oslo apartment with her husband. As she develops a fear to leave her house, she creates a fantasy world, in which she is convinced that her husband is spying on her. Meanwhile, her lonely, porn-addicted neighbour grows a liking to a woman across the street. Ingrid is aware of this, yet is more so concerned with her own mental problems as we spiral with her in a world of paranoia and alienation. Blind marks Eskil Vogt debut, after writing scenario’s for Joachim Trier’s Oslo August 31st and Reprise. His sophmore film, 2021’s supernatural horror The Innocents was very well received, yet Blind flew somewhat under the radar. A controversial and extremely intimate watch, but through clever Kaufmanesque narration impactful to be sure.

21-04-2026 Physicist/neurosurgeon/test pilot/rock star Buckaroo Banzai drives his jet car through a mountain. Together with his mentor Dr. Tohichi Hikita he has at last perfected the “oscillation overthruster”, a device that allows an object to pass through solid matter. In using the overthruster Buckaroo Banzai finds himself in a different dimension from ours. When he returns, he discovers an alien organism has travelled with him, which is now also part of our dimension.. This is merely the start of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, a profoundly wacky 80’s flick starring Peter Weller, supported by John Lithgow, Jeff Goldbloom and Christopher Lloyd. As a group of interdimensional aliens called the Red Lectroids, from Planet 10, attempt to take over the world with nobody to stop them, only Banzai and his posse, the Hong Kong cavaliers, stand a chance to save us all. For fans of our cult screenings one not to miss for sure, tonight’s screening is an absolute masterclass in silly sci-fi.

26-05-2026 “Misunderstood. Lesbian. Pretentious. Depraved. Cruel. Whore. Whore!.” These are just some words in which eccentric arthouse director Lola Cuevas (Penélope Cruz) describes herself. For her latest project she gets put to work by an entrepreneur billionaire who wants to create an iconic movie starring Hollywood superstar Félix Rivero (Antonio Banderas) and classical theatre actor Iván Torres (Oscar Martinez). This turns out to be quite the challenge as the two actors cannot get along in the slightest, yet the billionaire keeps insisting the movie goes on as planned. Competencia Oficial is a hilarious satire of the world of arthouse cinema, avant-garde and all things pretentious. After it fittingly premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2021, it played in global arthouses in 2022. Now, after four years, it is time for us to serve some real avant-garde at your favorite local Groninger arthouse. A prelude to our special, to be announced, month of June; Competencia Oficial will set the tone accordingly.