"The Northerners" (1992) is the second feature length movie of Alex van Warmerdam after "Abel" (1986).
It is never a simpel task to give a follow up to a successful debut, and "The Northerners" is no exception. It is vintage van Warmerdam, but in my opinion "Abel" was the better movie.
In "The Northerners" there are a lot of weird characters in a very clear and sober environment.
This environment consists in a just build but not quite ready district (the film is situated in the early 60's when the reconstruction after the Second World War was not yet finished) on the one side and a nearby forest on the other side.
The set pieces that shape this environment are in my opinion the strongest point in the film. In the district there is a lot of social control and keeping up appearances. The forest is much more mysterious. In the forest the unconscious motivations of the characters get the upper hand.
I already said that "The Northerners" lacks the quality of "Abel". The main reason is that the (weird) characters are causing a lot of seperate funny incidents, but the film lacks an overall storyline.
There is the situation of a man being sexually frustrated because his wife becomes a religious fanatic and a woman being sexually frustrated because her man's infertility has made him afraid of sex. This situation has storyline potential, but van Warmerdam makes no optimal use of it.
