Ben Sombogaart to direct Rafaël, A Love Story

The rights to Christine Otten’s novel Rafaël had been sold to producer Rinkel Film even before the book hits the stores on May 15. Ben Sombogaart, known for TWIN SISTERS, BRIDE FLIGHT and CRUSADE IN JEANS, will direct the film. Script duties are being handled by Tijs van Marle (ACCUSED and BON VOYAGE). RAFAËL will arrive in Dutch cinemas in the autumn of 2016.

The film will be shot almost entirely in Italy.

Book
The book is published by Atlas-Contact and was released on May 15. The author is Christine Otten (1961). She made her debut in 1995 with Blue Meta, which was nominated for the Debutant Prize. The Last Poets from 2004 was her breakthrough novel. It was nominated for the Libris Literature Prize, and turned into a theatre show. In 2008 Like Casablanca was published, followed in January 2010 by the controversial In Wonderland. In 2011 Otten (together with photographic artist Erik Kessels) provided the annual Book Week-essay.

Her latest novel, In Order To Breathe, was very well received.

Reports on drowned and murdered refugees make the news every day. Both film and book put a face to all those fleeing the sadly still on-going Arab Spring.

RAFAËL will be produced by Rinkel Film, responsible for such successful films as SECRETS OF WAR, ACCUSED, COOL KIDS DON’T CRY and SÜSKIND. It is an international co-production with Verdeoro (Italy).