Director, "Instinct"

Halina Reijn

Halina Reijn is a renowned actress, author, director and producer. She is the winner of multiple awards, including the Dutch film Award, the Golden Calf for Best Actress , the Dutch theater awards Theo D’Or and Colombina, as well as the Courbois pearl, an oeuvre award which honours an actress who has made an indelible impression, both on stage as in film and television. Since 2017 she is also the proud owner of the Theo Mann-Bouwmeester Ring, an award to honour an actress who has contributed greatly to the Dutch theatre.

Her directorial feature film debut INSTINCT (2019), starring Carice van Houten (GAME OF THRONES) and Marwan Kenzari (ALADDIN) has been selected for several film festivals. INSTINCT is he first outing for Man Up, the production banner of Halina and Carice. MAN UP’s goal is to create films and television drama with high current value and relevance, told from a female perspective. To explore darker, edgy stories that, through shame or fear, often remain untold. Quality, artistic integrity and openness to their audiences defines the productions of MAN UP.

Halina was professionally trained at the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts and in 1997 debuted on stage as Ophelia in Hamlet, directed by Theu Boermans. She continued to act on stage in such productions as Shopping & Fucking, Three Sisters, Mourning Becomes Electra, Hedda Gabler, La Voix Humaine, The Fountainhead and recently Obsession, opposite Jude Law. She starred in the Oscar nominated film ZUS & ZO, in Paul Verhoeven’s critically acclaimed BLACK BOOK and in Bryan Singer’s VALKYRIE, opposite Tom Cruise.

In 2005, her first novel Prinsesje Nooitgenoeg (Prometheus) debuted, followed by Halina: doen alsof ik iemand anders ben (Prometheus, 2009), Antiglamour (co-written with Carice van Houten, Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 2013), and Loos (Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 2016). She is working on film scripts and television series based on original ideas. In 2017, Halina was named one of 25 most influential people in the Dutch media by a leading Dutch newspaper. She writes columns for Dutch and Belgian magazines and newspapers and is regularly a co-host on one of the best watched daily news shows on Dutch TV.

Halina works with internationally acclaimed director Ivo van Hove at the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, performing their plays all over the world. She can be seen  in the Swedish series CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE, directed by Charlotte Brändström.