De Groeten van Mike!
Mike Says Goodbye!
Maria Peters
After a serious illness, the ten-year-old Mike is finally discharged and allowed back home. But when his mother shows up at the hospital to collect him, she is, as so often, drunk. The Youth Welfare Office is called in: Mike may only return to his mother if she can care for him adequately.
Mike knows that she drinks too much but no way does he want to be placed with foster parents. After all, he is old enough to take care of himself. So he and his room-mate Vincent, who he is slowly beginning to make friends with, devise a plan that will thwart the Youth Welfare Office. But the things go totally wrong. When finally threatened with accommodation in a children’s home, Mike sees no other way out and absconds. Except no one is at home, because his mother is now on an alcohol detox programme and trying to get her problems under control. When the boy is found again, he has to return to the hospital. But a happy ending is in sight.
Maria Peters
Maria Peters has Bachelor of Law degree but, in 1983, she also graduated from the Dutch Film Academy with the short film Alle vogels vliegen which was broadcast by NOS TV. From 1983 to 1987, she worked as editor and assistant director on several feature film productions. In 1987, she started up the Shooting Star Film Company, a production firm, together with Dave Schram and Hans Pos. In 1993, Shooting Star co-produced the film Daens as directed by Stijn Coninx and went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Maria Peters has directed fourteen films and received a Crystal Bear for De Tasjesdief (The Purse Snatcher) at the Berlin International Film Festival. Her family film Kruimeltje (Little Crumb) was responsible for an all-time record of 1.3 million cinema tickets in The Netherlands alone. In 2012, her film Sonny Boy was selected as the Dutch entry for
the Academy Awards (the Oscars).
Films by Maria Peters (Selection):
Sonny Boy 2011 | Afblijven 2006 | Pietje Bell en de Tsarenkroon 2002 | Oietje Bell 2001 | Kruimeltje 1999 | De Tasjesdief 1995
