In Orange

The Dutch invest a lot into their children’s films, as this rites-of-passage tale embracing football and bereavement amply demonstrates. Twelve-year-old Remco is obsessed with playing  for the Dutch national team – ‘in orange’ – but zeal flounders when know-it-all dad Thomas Acda suddenly dies. Soon though, dad’s appearing to Remco and conducting coaching sessions from beyond the grave, which include a kickabout with Garrincha, Bobby Moore and other ghosts of football past. Just about keeping the sentimentality reined in, ‘In Orange’ never patronises its young hero and has enough narrative step-overs and shimmies to keep you glued.