Tessy Moerenhout

The movie made after the hit series "De Kollega's" starring the same characters, but rather tragicomic. When November 11, an official holiday (Armistice), falls on a Tuesday, the public service often gets an extra day off on the preceding Monday, but only after a formal ministerial decision, and this time it gets all the way trough the hierarchy to the right office- and then isn't read, so all the colleagues turn up, only to be told they should have stayed at home. It gets worse: works in progress and clumsiness end up blocking the way out both by lift and staircase, so they are stuck on their floor, apparently without a phone, while there's nobody outside who can hear and rescue them. Forced to keep their conversation going, some secrets get unearthed, and it's not a very pretty picture they got of each-other.

De Collega's is a classic Belgian comedy TV series about colleges working in an office of the Ministry of Finance. It originally aired for three seasons between 9 September 1978 and 21 February 1981 on the BRT. A total of 37 episodes was made. The series was written by Jan Matterne, who also directed the first season. The second and third seasons were directed by Vincent Rouffaer. In 1988 a feature film was released, De Kollega's Maken de Brug. The series was re-aired numerous times, most recently in October 2008.