‘Reedland’ Review: Atmospheric Debut Set in Rural Dutch Community Marks the Arrival of a Bold New Genre Filmmaker – Cannes Film Festival 2025
Sven Bresser’s feature debut follows a solitary reedcutter whose quiet life unravels after he discovers a murdered girl on his land.
For years, Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique has been a vital springboard for discovering new voices in cinema. It has also quietly become a playground for bold genre filmmakers. Before taking home the Palme d’Or for Titane, Julia Ducournau cut her teeth here with Junior and the now-iconic Raw (Grave). Back in 1993, Guillermo del Toro won over the jury with Cronos, his gothic horror debut. Fast forward to 2023, Malaysian body horror Tiger Stripes by Amanda Nell Eu claimed the Grand Prize.
Horror and high tension have always had a place in the Critics’ Week lineup. In 2007, French duo Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo debuted their bloody slasher sensation Inside, sharing the spotlight with Juan Antonio Bayona’s haunting psychological horror The Orphanage. David Robert Mitchell’s cult favorite It Follows crept into the 2014 competition, while the eerie locust horror The Swarm by Justine Philippot was selected during the 2020 pandemic edition. Most recently, Emma Benestan’s gender-bending body horror Animale closed the section in 2024.
This year’s edition may not include an outright horror title—but Sven Bresser’s debut feature tap into the same raw, unsettling energy.
From its first frame, Reedland (Rietland) establishes a mood of quiet menace. Its muted cinematography evokes the grainy, desaturated look of early 2000s horror films. The windswept reed fields—eerily still yet subtly alive—seem to guard secrets beneath their surface. Real-life reedcutter Gerrit Knobbe plays Johan, a stoic widower whose daily routine—cutting, binding, and burning reeds before retreating to his lonely home—suggests a man suspended in emotional limbo. But when he stumbles upon the body of a murdered girl on his land, that silence is pierced. A gnawing sense of dread seeps into the narrative as Johan’s world becomes increasingly unstable, and his obsession with solving the mystery threatens to consume him.
A still from Reedland featuring Loïs Reinders and Gerrit Knobbe.
Reedland is more than just a murder mystery; Bresser uses the reedlands—his own childhood home—as a backdrop for a broader exploration of tension between the local community and the authorities. Set against a landscape dominated by middle-aged characters, the film conveys the simmering anger of those who have lived on the land for generations and are unwilling to embrace change. Youth is largely absent, except for a group of children who appear in a local school play, including Johan’s grandchildren (Loïs Reinders), whom he is tasked with protecting from time to time, and the ones from a neighboring village across the river, referred to as 'Trooters,' who are accused by the police as suspects.
These two generational groups serve as a metaphorical divide between perpetrators and victims. But who, in fact, killed the girl? Reedland is a haunting film about the unseen—about potential, ambiguity, and the quiet paranoia that lingers long after the murder is discovered. Could Johan himself be the killer? Does the brief scene in which he indulges in internet pornography hint at a darker side—or is it simply a portrait of human impulse, routine, and loneliness? Or is the answer hidden deeper still, somewhere beyond the reeds or in the fog-covered country roads?
One thing is certain: Reedland masterfully builds its mystery with quiet conviction and delivers a resolution that’s both chilling and deeply satisfying.
A staggering debut feature with disturbing atmosphere, Reedland marks the arrival of a bold new genre filmmaker.
Reedland is produced by Marleen Slot for Dutch outlet Viking Film, co-produced by Dries Phlypo for A Private View, and Martien Vlietman for VPRO. The Party Film Sales is handling worldwide sales, with The Jokers set to release the film in French cinemas.
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