English summary

The genre of this, Alex van Warmerdam’s ninth film could be described as a polder western as two men shoot it out in a typically Dutch landscape of long reeds. The plot is loaded with the driest of humour and wonderful, hilarious dialogue – Van Warmerdam’s trademarks.

On the morning of his birthday, contract killer and perfectionist Schneider (Tom Dewispelaere) is called by Mertens with an urgent job. The target is the writer Ramon Bax (Van Warmerdam). Initially, Schneider refuses because it is his birthday. Mertens insists that the job is very important because the man in question is a child-murderer. As the coke-sniffing Bax lives in a remote wooden house on the water’s edge, this seems like a very easy hit. Schneider changes his mind and takes the job. But killing Bax turns out not to be as easy as all that. His unpredictable, traumatised daughter Francisca (the perfectly cast Maria Kraakman) is visiting him and this has major consequences. Ultimately, there turn out to be lot more flies in the ointment and nothing is as it seems….

Schneider vs. Bax was nominated for the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival.