Black Book (2006)

Black Book (Dutch: Zwartboek) is a 2006 war drama thriller film co-written and directed by Paul Verhoeven. The film, credited as based on several true events and characters, stars Carice van Houten as a young Jewish woman in the Netherlands who becomes a spy for the resistance during World War II after tragedy befalls her in an encounter with the Nazis. The cast also features Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman and Halina Reijn.

A co-production of the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and the UK, it is the first film that Verhoeven made in his native Netherlands since The Fourth Man (1983). With a $21 million production budget, Black Book was the most expensive Dutch film ever made.

Black Book had its world premiere on 1 September 2006 at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Lion. Upon its wide release in the Netherlands on 14 September, Black Book was well-received by film critics, who especially praised the performance of Van Houten. It went to gross $27 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing Dutch film of 2006. At the Netherlands Film Festival, Black Book won three Golden Calf awards, including Best Feature Film. It was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and was the Dutch submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not nominated. In 2008, the Dutch public voted it the best Dutch film ever.