Halina Reijn

Halina Reijn was born on 10 November 1975 in Amsterdam, Netherlands,[1] to Fleur ten Kate and Frank Volkert Reijn (1931-1986).[2][3][4] Reijn's parents were both artists.[3][5] She is the middle child of three daughters, with a older sister named Leonora and a younger named Esther.[3] Her father was homosexual despite being in heterosexual marriage with her mother.[5] Reijn grew up in an anthroposophy household,[6][7] her parents were followers of the Subud spiritual movement,[5] In her early years, she grew up in a "Pippi Longstocking" house with her family in the tiny village of Wildervank,[8][9] Groningen which attracted a lot of artists.[8] they lived without television and they never visited the cinema,[6] instead they played music, drawed and painted, her dad even built a theater room with a podium and flats for her.[8] When she was around six, seven years old she and one of her sisters wanted to join the Catholic Church to the shock of their parents.[5][8] However, their parents relented, the children would go to sunday school,[5] and when Reijn was twelve she was baptised.[8]

Reijn developed an interest in acting when her babysitter, brought her along for a showing of Annie, a film adaption of the Broadway musical, at a local theater when she was six years old. She stated: "When I saw Annie, I thought, I want that too. I was very jealous of her".[6][7][9] With help of her mother she joined a youth theater in Veendam. Reijn found it inadequate and thought the other children didn't take it seriously enough, which led her mother to pursue an audition with the theater collective De Voorziening (precursor to the Noord Nederlands Toneel) despite her young age.[7]

When she was ten years old and a year after her parents amicably separated, her father died suddenly from suffocation, which was caused by undiagnosed pulmonary embolism.[5][10] Following her father's death, the family moved to a newly built neighborhood of Groningen in order to escape the isolation.[8] She would spent her teenage years at the Vooropleiding Theater in Groningen, which was a grueling youth academy with a highly selective group, where they were giving lessons and had to rehearse every midday.[6][7]

Halina Reijn was professionally trained at the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she graduated in 1998. In the middle of her second year in Maastricht, she was asked to join the ensemble at the De Trust where she was offered the role of Ophelia in Hamlet, Subsquently, Theu Boermans, the artistic director, offered her a permanent place at the collective. Among her other performances for De Trust, her portrayal of Lulu on Shopping and Fucking she received the prestigious Dutch theater prize, the Colombina, as "Best Supporting Actress" in 1998.[11][7] On Jannuary 1, 2001, 3 years after Reijn joined, De Trust would fuse with another theater company named Art & Pro. The fusion, however, did not proved fruitful, the newly formed company was steeped in financial difficulties, infighting between the co-founders and eventually they would be denied subsidies.[12][13] In 2003 she joined the ensemble at Toneelgroep Amsterdam,[11] under the direction of long-time collaborator Ivo van Hove.[14] With Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Halina Reijn has performed main roles in The Taming of the Shrew,[15] Hedda Gabler,[16] Oresteia,[17] and Mourning Becomes Electra, for the latter which she was nominated for a Theo d'Or for “Best Female Actress” in 2004.[18][19]

Throughout her student years, she would also star in various minor roles on the small screen, ranging from guest starring in single episodes to a lead role in Pril geluk,[6] a thirteen-part comedy series on the Veronica channel, which only lasted for a single season.[20][21] She also had a role in a short called Temper! Temper! written and directed by Frank Lammers, which was part of Kort Rotterdams, a five-part series highlighting common elements of Rotterdam's society.[22] In 1998, Reijn branched out into film, with the adaption of the Jan Wolkers's short story De wet op het kleinbedrijf, where she had a principal role in the television film.[23] The following year she starred in her first in telefilm, an initiative started by the NPO in 1998 to produce films for public television,[24] De Trein van zes uur tien, a Dutch thriller directed by Frank Ketelaar that was broadcast by AVRO.[25] It was part of the 2000's Cologne Conference, where it was selected among the ten programmes at the TopTen section of the festival.[26] That same year she played a bit part as a sex worker in Martin Koolhoven's breakout film, Suzy Q, which featured Reijn's lifelong friend Carice van Houten in the title role.[19][27] Despite its warm critical reception and launching the careers of the people involved, the movie was never released on home video, in theaters or shown outside its home country due to music license issues with artists like The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix among others.[28][27]

Reijn made her big screen acting debut in De Omweg (also known as "The Detour"), a semi-autobiographical drama directed and written by Frouke Fokkema, It opened in Dutch theaters on November 7, 2000.[29][30][31] In 2001, she would star in Nanouk Leopold's directorial debut, tragicomedy Îles flottantes, it follows the dysfunctional lives of three friends who all recently turned thirty.[32] The lowbudget film was part of No More Heroes, an initiative started in order to produce films from upcoming Dutch filmmakers.[33][34] The film was selected for and first premiered at the 2001's International Film Festival Rotterdam,[35][36] where it was nominated for the Tiger Award.[36][34] Between the two film releases in 2001, she also participated in De acteurs, a seven part weekly series where fourteen young actors were interviewed and paired up with each other to rehearse scenes from a miniseries created by Kim van Kooten.[37] that same year, Reijn gained further notoriety with her role in the tragicomedy, Zus & Zo, alongside De Trust peers,[38] which was written and directed by Paula van der Oest.[38][39] The movie revolves around three sisters trying top stop their gay brother from marrying a woman and in doing securing the family's seaside estate for his own. Reijn played the unsuspecting would-be fiancée.[38][39][40][41] The movie was nominated for Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 75th Academy Awards,[42] even though it received mixed reviews.[43] She also starred in her second short, Flicka, as the title role, in which she played a computer programme who is in relationship with a lonely building supervisor, it was produced as part of NTR Kort!.[44] [45] And in the VARA TV Movie Herschreven vriendschap.[46]

In 2002, Reijn starred in four movies. First she played a minor part in Frank Van Passel's Villa des Roses,[47][48] her first role in an English/French language international co-production, based on the novel of the same name by Willem Elsschot.[49] Her next two projects were on television with the short TV drama De afrekening and the TV Movie Ware Liefde.[50][51] She also had a very small role in Moonlight, Paula van der Oest's follow-up movie, an English-language thriller.[52] Meanwhile back on stage she performed her first role for Toneelgroep Amsterdam, under the direction of Ivo van Hove she took on the role of courtesan Poppea in Con Amore.[53][54] At the time, while she was still connected with De Trust, she got 'loaned out' to TGA.[55] A Father's Affair (Maarten Teurniet), and Grimm (Alex van Warmerdam).

In 2006 she starred in A Thousand Kisses directed by Willem van de Sande Bakhuijzen, Black Book directed by Paul Verhoeven (the Dutch entry for the Academy Awards as Best Foreign Language Film) and Blind by Tamar van den Dop. In 2008, she portrayed Margarethe von Oven in Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise.

In 2010 she starred as Lara in "In Therapie", the Dutch version of "In Treatment", and in two Dutch book adaptions. "De Eetclub", directed by Robert Jan Westdijk and "Isabelle" by director Ben Sombogaart. In the summer of 2011 Halina is added to the cast of "Goltzius & The Pelican Company", directed by Peter Greenaway. In 2013 she plays the title role in the weekly TV series "Charlie", a Dutch remake of Showtime's "Nurse Jackie". In 2014 she could be seen in box office hit "Pak van mijn hart", a romantic comedy for the holiday season.

In 2016/2017 she can be seen in the musical film "De Zevende Hemel" and on stage in the play "Obsession" next to Jude Law, this play is a coproduction between Toneelgroep Amsterdam and the Barbican Centre London.[56]

In 2019 she released Instinct, her debut feature as a film director starring Carice van Houten in the leading role. The film won the Variety Piazza Grande Award and received a special mention for best first feature at the Locarno Film Festival[57] and was selected as the Dutch entry for the 92nd Academy Awards.[58]

Reijn has a close friendship with fellow Dutch actress Carice van Houten, whom she has known since about 1994.[59] They worked together in movies Black Book and Valkyrie.

In 2013 the two published a book together called Anti Glamour, a (mock) style guide and a celebration of their friendship,[60] as well as a candid look into the unglamourous back-stage side of their lives.[61] Although the two occasionally kiss on camera,[62] and have joked about being lesbians, there is no actual romantic involvement.[59]

• Halina Reijn at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
• Homepage Halina Reijn
• Interview with Halina Reijn at european-films.net Archived 21 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine
• Halina Reijn at IMDb
• Halina Reijn at Virtual History