Quotes of the Day

WHEN SHE GOT the news of her Oscar nomination two weeks ago, Dutch writer/director Paula van der Oest was about as far from Hollywood's glamour as one can get. She was in the offices of De Luwte, the company that produced Zus & Zo (Sisters & Such), her bittersweet comedy that's up for Best Foreign Language Film. De Luwte is not far from Amsterdam's central railway station. An iron door between shabby souvenir shops leads to a dank alley, at the end of which a steep staircase takes you to a sparsely furnished room with bare light bulbs. Congratulatory bouquets of flowers linger on every available surface. "The Oscar nomination wasn't totally unexpected," Van der Oest says, "because we had heard rumors from the U.S. that people were very enthusiastic. But I didn't dare to believe them because I wanted to protect myself from disappointment. After that, the phone didn't stop ringing for three days."

VAN DER OEST'S PHONE is going to keep ringing, whether she wins the Oscar on March 23 or not. Zus & Zo is one of the most talked-about films around at the moment, and it is only the sixth time a Dutch film has been nominated. A touching comedy based on the complex relationship between three sisters and their 35-year-old homosexual kid brother, Nino, the Dutch film recalls for many Woody Allen's classic Hannah and Her Sisters. The comparison clearly delights Van der Oest: "Woody Allen is one of my biggest inspirations and that's one of my favorite films. Allen is very much associated with New York and my film mirrors a very contemporary Dutch urban lifestyle."

THE STORY IS SET partly in Amsterdam and partly in Portugal. The plot itself is simple: the three quarrelsome sisters put aside their differences to work together to wreck Nino's wedding plans because if he marries, he stands to inherit the much-loved family hotel in Estoril, Portugal. The sisters' main motivation is to protect their own interests — and see their brother's homosexuality as a weapon to scare off the beautiful and younger woman he says he has fallen in love with. Nino, on his side, is making a much-needed break for independence and plans to sell off the hotel for reasons of his own. There is, of course, a twist at the end, but on the whole it's a feelgood movie.

THE FILM HAS ALREADY made an impact in New York, where it has been showing at art houses to good reviews. The rights for an English-language version have been bought by U.S. producers Renée Missel and Jonathan Dana. "I've even heard that Danny de Vito's production company, Jersey Films, may co-produce it," says Van der Oest. The film's title is a play on words: zus translates as sister but the combination zus en zo also means this and that.

AS WITH WOODY ALLEN, the inevitable questions about autobiography have emerged. Van der Oest herself has one sister but adds quickly that she's not anything like any of the characters in the film. But Zus & Zo is something of a family affair anyway. Sister Sandra van der Oest worked on the film's production, while hubby Theu Boermans plays the film's philandering husband, Hugo, and the couple's 2-year-old daughter (now 4) also makes an appearance. Van der Oest wrote the rough draft of Zus & Zo in a speedy six weeks.

SO DOES HER ART IMITATE her life? "All three sisters in the film have got a bit of myself in them," Van der Oest says. "Like me, the oldest always takes too much on and is a bit of a do-gooder. The middle one is creative, like me, but she's self-obsessed, whereas as a working mother with kids of 4 and 6 to look after, that's a luxury I can't afford. The youngest is perhaps the least like me, she's perpetually searching for something in her life."

AT 37, Van der Oest already has a respectable cinematic history behind her, including international awards for her first feature film De Nieuwe Moeder (Another Mother) in 1996. Her latest project is a film adaptation of the popular Dutch novel De Gelukkige Huisvrouw (also published in English as The Happy Housewife) by Heleen van Royen. Since production on Zus & Zo was finished, things have not always worked in the film's favor. The world premiere was at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2001, immediately after the terrorist attacks on the U.S.; the Dutch premiere was on May 6, 2002, the day politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated. Of course, not even George W. Bush would launch an attack on Iraq on the Sunday the Academy Awards are given out. (Would he?)

FOUR OTHER TITLES (German, Finnish, Mexican and Chinese) are vying for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. "So I have a 20% chance, although comedies aren't very popular at the Oscars," says Van der Oest. "Now that I've been nominated I really want to win, but the nomination has already opened a lot of doors." For now, she's trying to keep expectations low: "I'm really excited at the prospect of going to the ceremony in L.A., but I'm certainly not going to prepare a speech. I don't even have a clue what I'm going to wear."

• ABI DARUVALLA
• Paula van der Oest — dubbed the Woody Allen of Amsterdam — is off to Hollywood