IMDB Info
Year: 1984
Rating: 7.0
Director: Jos Stelling
Cast: Freek de Jonge, Jim van der Woude, Catrien Wolthuizen
Genre: Comedy
Plot: Without a word of dialogue from beginning to end, De Illusionist relies on entrancing photography, a tour-de-force performance by its lead actors, and effective action and hilarious slapstick sequences to keep audiences fascinated by the story of an older brother who is a stage magician, trying to save his younger brother with down syndrome from a long internment in a mental hospital.

The illusionist is an anal-retentive personality, hanging on to the material things for dear life, like his collection of dead flies. The brothers don´t communicate their feelings, their few hugs always end up in childish brawls. They live with their strictly religious parents in an old mill. The parents suppress any social contacts, let alone sexual experiences. When a girl stumbles over the younger brother, her family interprets this as an sexual assault by him, and he´s committed to the mental ward. The family´s small, hermetic world starts to crumble.
Tag: 1984, Comedy