Wonderful surreal comedy of Dutch (bad) manners, with superb playing through the entire cast of eccentrics, misfits and lunatics. Olga Zuiderhoek is excellent as the implacably doting mother Duif, obsessed with fertility and sabotaging all her husband's schemes to get their son Abel to lead a "normal" life. But the film is made by Henri Garcin as (the possibly ironically named) husband Victor, whose descent into madness is delightfully reminiscent of Herbert Lom's Inspector Dreyfus.Only Annet Malherbe's Zus lets the side down, passive and accepting of her place on her admirers' pedestals, more cipher than Circe. Maybe her line that "all women like to be watched" seemed profound thirty years ago; not so much now.

Although the last commentator found the movie a bit too weird, I'm delighted that people in far-away Virginia have the possibility to enjoy such an obscure Dutch art-house movie. Long live globalization. As for the film, I heard it's a classic among cinéphiles in France and other countries, but I completely understand those who find it a bit too weird, like our friend from Virginia. Different places, different sorts of humour. But if you like Bunuel, it's worth the try.Cheers, Arnoud (Amsterdam)

one of best and very dutch movie wit action romance adventure and phantasy in a very dry dutch way fantastic superb portrait of dutch landscape and people

Abel is a very amusing movie. It has been made with love and class. It has a very familiar odor of burned potatoes and crispy fishfingers. Life is sweet certainly when you are still within reach of your (obsessive) mother and notwithstanding the difficult relation to your strict dad. I could make this a lot longer but at this instant I just wanted to be the first person to add a comment. In short, very good movie !