Nouchka van Brakel

Nouchka van Brakel (born 18 April 1940 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch film director known for her 1982 movie Van de koele meren des doods. That movie, and A Woman Like Eve, established her as an important Dutch feminist film director. which lived a fairly bohemian lifestyle: her mother was a singer and her father was a jazz musician, and they lived in Turkey for two years. She went to high school in Bilthoven, living with her mother while her father was abroad. she became the first woman to attend the Netherlands Film and Television Academy, which at the time was housed at Oude Hoogstraat 24, around the corner from her house in Amsterdam's Nieuwmarkt district.

Van Brakel's second movie, Zwaarmoedige verhalen voor bij de centrale verwarming (1975), was produced by Matthijs van Heijningen, who was responsible for launching the careers of a number of notable Dutch directors, including van Brakel. Van de koele meren des doods, another van Heijningen production (he produced a great number of adaptations of literary works) was a success, and established her reputation. After 1987's Een maand later, her career seemed to falter. Her 2001 film De Vriendschap, with a set of elderly main characters, focused on male friendship and female sexuality, but the film was a critical and commercial failure, which strongly affected her. She is listed among a number of European women filmmakers who benefited from the feminist wave of the 1960s and 1970s and entered a previously male-dominated domain, including Mai Zetterling and Chantal Akerman; Een vrouw als Eva (1979) is mentioned as one of the female-directed movies that offer "very affirmative images of lesbianism". A recurring theme in her films is that of "women who break out of society's conventions and want something 'controversial'".

Filmography Ave Maria. Van Dienstmaagd des Heren tot Koningin van de Hemel (documentary, 2006, co-produced with the KRO) De Vriendschap (2001) Aletta Jacobs: Het Hoogste Streven (1995) Een maand later (1987) Van de koele meren des doods (1982) Een vrouw als Eva (A Woman Like Eve, 1979) The Debut (1977) Zwaarmoedige verhalen voor bij de centrale verwarming (1975) Ouder Worden (Aging, 1975)