Zomerhitte is a 2008 film directed by Monique van de Ven

Monique van de Ven

Monica Maria Theresia "Monique" van de Ven is a Dutch actress and director.From 1973 until 1988 she was married to Dutch cinematographer and director Jan de Bont, with whom she lived in Los Angeles for a number of years. She is now married to actor and writer Edwin de Vries.Her film debut as an...

. Her first feature-length film, it is based on the 2005 book-week giveaway novella

Novella

A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

 by Jan Wolkers

Jan Wolkers

Jan Hendrik Wolkers was a Dutch author, sculptor and painter.Wolkers is considered one of the "Great Four" writers of post-World War II Dutch literature, along with Willem Frederik Hermans, Harry Mulisch and Gerard Reve...

. Wolkers, who died while the film was in post-production, also authored the story for van de Ven's first film as an actress, Turkish Delight

Turkish Delight (film)

Turkish Delight is a 1973 Dutch film directed by Paul Verhoeven and filmed by Jan de Bont. The film is a love story of an artist and a young woman, starring Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven. The story is based on the novel Turks fruit by Jan Wolkers...

(1973).

Plot

Photographer Bob Griffioen (Waldemar Torenstra) is in Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 with his girlfriend when they witness rebels attacking a car. His girlfriend wants to flee the scene but he wants to photograph it, resulting in his girlfriend being killed. (This part is not in the book.)

Later, Bob is doing nature photography in the dunes near a beach on the island of Texel

Texel

Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...

. The beach appears to be deserted, until he sees the naked Kathleen (Sophie Hilbrand) emerging from the sea. He boldly photographs her. A little disturbed she asks whether he has photographed her. He denies it, but she sees the photographs on his camera screen. She says he should undress too because it is a nude beach

Nude beach

A nude beach is a beach where users are legally at liberty to be nude. Sometimes the terms clothing-optional beach or free beach are used. Nude bathing is one of the most common forms of nudity in public. As beaches are usually on public lands, any member of the public is entitled to use the...

, just like one should be dressed when in the street. He takes off his shirt only.

Kathleen is paid by an older man (who we later discover belongs to a drug gang) for allowing him to watch her fingering herself. She also socialises with the gang. Bob meddles with the gang's affairs and uninvitedly comes to their parties. This causes the gang to get hostile to him: they throw him into the water, damage his belongings in the house where he is staying, and kidnap him. Accidentally the kidnapper gets killed. Bob throws him into a shallow lake in the dunes, with a heavy bag with drugs strapped to his body to keep him underwater.

Bob and Kathleen have sex, although he is not sure on which side she is, especially when she steals the gun Bob had taken from his kidnapper. Later she lies to Bob that she has got rid of it.

Kathleen refuses fingering herself in front of the older man anymore, after which he forces her, threatening with a gun. A moment later he has been shot. According to Kathleen it was suicide.

Bob and Kathleen are both kidnapped, but due to the gun Kathleen has with her they can escape. Bob now trusts her. Together they flee the island: Kathleen pretends to have a stroke (even toward Bob), and they are taken off the island by a medical emergency helicopter.

Later they live together abroad, and a suitcase with money is brought to them as a reward for what they did on Texel.