REEDLAND Review

Bust out your fanciest formalwear because today's movie review is a Dutch offering that was in consideration for Best International Feature for the 2026 Academy Awards!

Unfortunately, Reedland was not chosen as a finalist for that category at the 98th edition of the Oscars, but just to be in the picture and chosen as your country's offering is great recognition. So let's talk about a movie that came close to taking home Oscar gold (and had received multiple nominations at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at, either).

Reedland sees its lead character--Johan, a reed cutter who runs his farm and property--going about his quiet and earnest life when he finds the body of a young woman that has been raped and murdered. The trajectory of the investigation immediately turns towards the trooders, a group of immigrants into Holland that aren't looked upon that kindly.

As the authorities investigate, and as Johan takes care of his grand daughter and assists her with her schoolwork, he also sets about trying to finds the killer himself based on clues he finds on his land. Will Johan solve the crime?

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ Sven Bresser is the writer and director of Reedland, and he certainly has an eye for shooting and setting up his work. Reedland has some long takes and cuts that follow characters and allow the silence and the expressions to carry the scenes. There are some impressive visuals throughout, whether it's the shots through thick smoke or the moments of Johan's life and his interactions with those around him. 

Cinematographer Sam du Pon deserves some credit for this work, too, obviously, so I definitely need to shout him out. But this was Bresser's rookie effort, and it's no low praise to say he definitely accomplished and captured what he wanted in his direction here. There is a high quality sheen to the lower budget visuals and audio quality that Bresser has already mastered.

+ Gerrit Knobbe plays Johan in Reedland, and he does a quiet, dutiful job in the role. He has some great visual acting, and his subdued tone really portrays him as an older farmer who cares for his family and his work. His character does not say a lot, but you do end up feeling like you know him and what things mean to him. 

I found out after the fact, during my post-watch research, that Knobbe is an actual reed cutter who had never acted before this picture. Stellar work from him then to step right into this effort and give this kind of performance. It probably explains why his character says so little overall, but I never once got a sense that what I was seeing on screen was not genuine or well-handled.

- The movie is... let's call it "extremely deliberate". There are extended and intensive shots of reeds and smoke and simple tasks. Bresser lets entire moments carry out in front of the camera, and it gets to wear on the viewer a bit as it goes on. For a movie that reaches past 100 minutes, you find yourself kind of wanting these scenes of the film to stop stretching on so long. It feels like you spend half the runtime just looking at scenery. 

Bresser is clearly going for an atmosphere here to lull the audience into a sense of security, but it honestly was closer to lulling me into a bit of boredom. I don't need to look at reeds for sixty seconds at a time. If the film had been a little tighter, these moments would not have been bad, but when the picture lasts as long as it does, they are a touch tedious. I feel like this is where the director's inexperience peeked through.

- This is not a plot heavy outing. There is not much happening or going on. Johan's life moves slowly, and there is not much to it. When you search the film online, you are treated to a short summary that reads, "Reed cutter Johan discovers a girl's lifeless body on his land, triggering an ambiguous sense of guilt. While caring for his granddaughter, he sets out on a quest to track down evil". And that, frankly, makes the movie sound more engaging than it actually is.

There are bits of Johan interacting with a pornbot advertisement and then acting in a play with his grand daughter, and these scenes don't tend to mean a lot in the grand scheme of things. They are just there to seemingly pad the runtime of Reedland. And as with the preceding Down, I'd have preferred they were eliminated to tighten everything together.

Reedland was unquestionably slow, overlong, and seemingly a little unfocused as far as the plot is concerned. But it's also got a wonderfully tactful lead performance and some great promise in Bresser's work behind the camera. I can certainly see how it was in the conversation for a possible Academy Award nomination, even if it was not necessarily for me.

🍿 SCORE = 41 / 100