Personal issues centering around whether it is being loyal or duplicitous to admit or deny the multinational nature of one's origins dominate this slight drama. In the story, Anton has a German mother, the assistant to a Dutch stage magician. He was born in Germany during the Second World War but moved with his family to the Netherlands as a toddler. Work was hard to come by, and stage magicians were not in great demand, so times were hard. In fact, Anton's mother took him with her and returned to live with her mother in Germany. Sometime later, his father took him back to the Netherlands, on the pretext that it was just for a holiday visit, and insisted that he remain with him there, citing fears that his son would become a "Kraut." Anton grew up pretending to be all Dutch and later becomes involved in the television industry. He is married, with children. However, he has so deeply internalized his father's wish that he be 100% Dutch that it takes a visit back to Germany to see his mother for him to admit to his family that he is, in fact, half German. Ironically, a short time later, at a Netherlands vs. German team soccer match, he forgets himself sufficiently to join the crowd in jeering the German team.
~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide