Sonny Boy

About The Film

Historical events threaten to destroy a forbidden interracial romance in the sweeping epic SONNY BOY, the Dutch entry for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Waldemar (Sergio Hasselbaink), a handsome and ambitious young black immigrant from Surinam, travels to Holland, the land of his colonial masters, to be educated. There he meets Rika (Ricky Koole), an older, middle-class Dutch mother and free spirit who garners contempt from her philandering husband. Against all odds and in the face of racial intolerance, they fall in love and have a child out of wedlock (the eponymous Sonny Boy, adorable Daniel van Wijk). The star-crossed couple survives scandal only to be tested again by the terrors of WWII and their rescue of Jewish refugees. Based on a scandalous true story, SONNY BOY is the screen version of Annejet van der Zijl’s bestselling novel.