Godforsaken

Godforsaken
Film poster
Directed by	Pieter Kuijpers
Produced by	Hanneke Niens Reinier Selen Anton Smit
Written by	Paul Jan Nelissen Pieter Kuijpers
Starring	Tygo Gernandt Angela Schijf Egbert Jan Weeber
Music by	Paleis van Boem
Cinematography	Bert Pot
Edited by	Job ter Burg
Distributed by	TLA Releasing
Release date	2003
Running time	83 minutes
Country	Netherlands
Language	Dutch, Turkish

Godforsaken (Dutch: Van God Los) is a 2003 Dutch drama film.

The film received a Golden Film (100,000 visitors) and won three Golden Calves.

The movie is based on the real life of the “Gang from Venlo”, that left a trail of death and destruction in the North-Middle Limburg area from 1993 till 1994. The most notorious incident is known as the “Carnival Murders”. During the 'farmer's wedding', an event at the carnival of 1994, the old couple Sjeng and Ferda van Rijn were murdered in a robbery.

In the movie names were changed out of respect for the people involved. There are also differences in the run-up to the incidents in the film. The incidents themselves however occurred in real life.

Many of the members of the Gang from Venlo are still unknown. It is also unclear who committed which crime. In 1997 18 men were convicted and received varied sentences from 10 years to life in prison. Seven murders, committed in cold blood, could be proven in court. The exact number of murders committed by the Gang from Venlo is uncertain. It is certain that three bodies that were found belonged to victims of the Gang from Venlo. The other four bodies were never found, and thus there are still doubts as to whether these four other murders actually happened.

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Wikipedia