FAQ for
Zwartboek (2006) More at IMDbPro »

Not directly. Zwartboek was based on an original screenplay written by screenwiter Gerard Soeteman and director Paul Verhoeven over a period of nearly 30 years. The idea for the movie started as early as during the pre-production of Verhoeven's earlier film, Soldaat van Oranje. Soldier of Orange was primarily a story of good (the Dutch resistance) versus bad (the German occupants and their collaborators); Soeteman and Verhoeven originally intended to nuance this view to certain extents, by showing that not all the 'bad people' were inherently evil, and that people on the 'good' side were not automatically brave and honorable. Both men had done extensive research into this subject. However, the screenplay for Soldier of Orange was already long and complex enough for one movie, so they decided to hold on to their ideas in the hope that it could one day amount to a seperate movie on its own.

For years, Soeteman and Verhoeven worked on the story, with the original intent to make the main character a young man who joins the resistance (basically the character of Rob in the beginning of the movie, played by Michiel Huisman). However, they could never come up with convincing ways for him to infiltrate the German ranks, until they thought of making the lead a woman.

Although the story itself is fictional, many of the events and characters in the movie are based on documented facts and real people. For instance, the character of Müntze (Sebastian Koch) was based on several people, one of them a real SD officer who was also convicted for illegally negotiating with the resistance (but not executed). The prison scene where Ellis and Nazi collaborators are humiliated by the Dutch guards is based on true events; covering traitors in feces was a method that was sometimes employed, and the Canadian army in fact replaced the entire crew of the Dutch prison in Scheveningen for misconduct in treating prisoners.

Collaborating with the enemy during wartime would be a serious offence. However, the film suggests that the inexperienced Canadian officer was duped into letting Muntze be executed.