Vlissingen 2026 Review: YOURI, A Great Film About A Great Friendship

The Film by the Sea festival in Vlissingen (a.k.a. Flushing) started this year on a high note with its opening film Youri, by Sander Burger. The festival always has a large section dedicated to literary adaptations, and its main theme this year is "Moed", the Dutch word for courage. Youri fits the section, as it is an adaptation of Jan Brokken's biographical novel "In the House of the Poet" about his friendship with superstar pianist Youri Egerov. It also fits the theme of "Courage", in several parts of the story, some of which are obvious, but some of which I will not spoil.

The film starts in Amsterdam in the 1980s, a few years after the famous Russian pianist Youri Egerov has fled to the Netherlands to pursue an openly homosexual lifestyle without fear of persecution. Journalist Jan Brokken gets an assignment to interview Youri, not the easiest of subjects as the pianist famously hates journalists. Despite the two men being very different, they manage to bond over their love of music. There's a click, and when Jan is invited to join Youri on his travel to a foreign concert, a friendship even develops.
But the interviewing isn't exactly a one-way-traffic road, as the extrovert Youri loves to tease and challenge Jan about his convictions, his hopes, his doubts. Inspired by Youri to dare to follow his own dream, Jan starts to write a novel...

You can read Wikipedia pages about both Jan Brokken and Youri Egerov and see that yes, there is some source material for a drama there, but as a story it looks quite predictable. Director Sander Burger deftly manages to keep everything interesting though, either by introducing visually rich asides or by keeping key information hidden until needed. You see the friendship that exists between the two characters but both keep some secrets as well, and it adds flavor to the film. Joes Brauers is great as Jan Brokken, but a huge revelation here is Georgian actor Levan Gelbakhiani who is fantastic as Youri. He is magnetic and charismatic, you can't take your eyes off of him, and not for a moment do you think you are watching an actor. It is one of my favorite performances in film this year, and I would not be surprised if Youri will pick up some awards because of it. And, importantly, there is true chemistry between the two leads. Their friendship comes across as believable and not contrived in the slightest.

Sander Burger proves he is one of the best Dutch directors at work currently. Previously he made the award-winning documentary I Am Alice about robot dolls with recording devices to keep elderly patients with dementia company, and the multi-award-winning drama The Judgement about a complicated true-life murder case in the Netherlands. With Youri, he again tells a story which really happened. Not that his film needs to be true-life: Youri would stand strong enough as a drama even if it were fully fictional. It is one of the best Dutch films in years. And I would not be surprised if it makes its way into the best-of lists of 2026 in a few months.


Youri had its world première at the Film by the Sea Festival, and will be widely release in the Netherlands from the 24th of September onward.