The Knife

The Knife is a 1961 Dutch drama film directed by Fons Rademakers. It is based on the short story of the same name by Hugo Claus from his collection The Black Emperor. Claus also wrote the screenplay for the film. The Knife is a coming-of-age story about Thomas, a thirteen-year-old boy who has a contentious relationship with his mother and starts to have conflicting feelings about his female friend, Toni. The film was entered into the 1961 Cannes Film Festival where it competed for the Palme d'Or. Plot Thomas is a 13-year-old boy in Limburg who lives with his mother. Since his father's death, his mother has begun a relationship with Oscar, his dad's best friend. This drives a wedge between mother and son, who thinks his mother is trying to replace his dad with Oscar. At an exhibition at a monastery, Thomas steals an antique knife. He shows it to Toni, his female friend, to impress her. Thomas uses the knife to intimidate Oscar, which ends up landing Thomas into trouble and results in Oscar confiscating the weapon.   After this incident, the mother tells Thomas he will be sent to boarding school at the end of the summer. Thomas spends the remainder of his summer days with Toni, visiting the fair and a territory owned by young people called De Valken. On their first visit to De Valken, Thomas is publicly humiliated by other boys. Thomas vows to get revenge with his knife, which he sneaks back into his possession. Meanwhile, Oscar's relationship with the mother has become strained, and Oscar's many evenings spent at the local pub starts to give the couple a bad reputation.