International Film Festival Rotterdam is opening with a homegrown Dutch film for the first time since 2018.

Writer-director Michiel ten Horn’s Fabula aims to combine grittiness with magical realism to tell the story of a small-time crook, played by Fedja van Huêt, star of Oscar- winning Dutch movie Character.

The setting is almost as important as the storyline, says ten Horn. He shot the film in Limburg, a province in the very muddy south of the Netherlands, close to the Belgian and German border. It is famous today as the birthplace of right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

“I am originally from there as well,” explains the filmmaker, whose credits include 2012’s The Deflowering Of Eva Van End which world premiered at Toronto and played at Rotterdam, 2014 comedy How To Avoid Everything and 2022 local box office hit Hotel Sinestra.

“In terms of stories and traditions, [Limburg] is more Catholic than the rest of Holland. It also has carnival which is connected with Catholicism….and for some reason, maybe just because there is so much countryside, there is just more folklore.”

As a border area, Limburg also has its fair share of crime – and crime and folklore are the main drivers of Fabula. One moment, there is a shootout or stand-off between gangsters and the next is a fantasy scene set in India in the 1600s.