Bride Flight

Bride Flight follows a group of Dutch emigrants who travel by air to New Zealand in 1953, among them three women from different walks of life who are bound for marriages arranged after the war, and a man who hopes to buy land and start a vineyard. Their shared journey across the world becomes the starting point for lives that take unexpected directions, as the hopes they carried with them meet the realities of a new country and the relationships between them shift over the years. The story moves between the ocean crossing of a storm-hit Dutch coastal region and the new lives the characters build far from home.

The film was directed by Ben Sombogaart, the first of three features listed in his filmography, from a screenplay by Marieke van der Pol, with Anton Smit and Hanneke Niens producing. Karina Smulders, Waldemar Torenstra, Anna Drijver and Pleuni Touw lead the cast, while Rutger Hauer and Petra Laseur play older versions of the central characters. Samsa Film was behind a production reported at around 6 million dollars.

Released in 2008, the film was made as a co-production involving the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Netherlands Antilles, where part of its story is set. It rated 7 out of 10 on IMDb across roughly 3,000 votes and 6.7 out of 10 on TMDB, a smaller sample. A critics' score of 6.4 from 39 reviews sits close to those audience figures, suggesting a similar overall reception.