Belgian director Wannes Destoop keeps things clear. The story takes place after the last season of Undercover (2019–2022)but he also takes a storyline out with him Ferry: Standard (2023– ). Ferry (Frank Lammers) has lost everything. He has lost his fortune, his reputation and his great love Danielle (Elise Schaap) and lives a secluded life in Spain.
Zone in sangria
There he hops around in the bright sun like Santa Claus to surprise the children at a nearby campsite with candy and presents. Not much later when he walks back to his camper, he sees an unknown boy wandering around there. It soon turns out that his great-niece Jezebel (Aiko Beemsterboer) has entered his camper. She is in trouble and needs 50,000 euros as quickly as possible. Ferry doesn’t have that money and wants to know what she needs it for.
It then turns out that the young lady has also dabbled in the ecstasy pills trade and has made a deal for the supply of 250,000 pills to Lex (Jonas Smulders), a new young pill king who is trying to seize power and is quite crazy and is incalculable. Ferry sees no other option than to save his niece from trouble and take up his ‘old job’ again. With all the dangers that entails.
Overseeing his life
At the beginning of the film we get a short recap of Ferry’s life, which can be heard as a voice-over. We know that Ferry owes something to his young niece because Ferry was involved in the death of her father Jurgen (Kevin Janssens). Old enemies also appear who cannot be trusted. Destoop immediately knows how to speed things up and quickly introduces all the characters, so that the story takes its course. In this way, Smulders portrays a convincing young but scary drug dealer without going ‘over the top’. Beemsterboer is well cast and plays her role with verve. Young and brash. Lammers like Bouman shows that this role still suits him like a glove.
In the ever expanding universe of Undercover in Ferry it is great that after three seasons Undercovertwo seasons Ferry and a film, yet another solid and convincing script; this time written by Tibbe van Hoof and Geerard Van de Walle. Although it comes down to the same thing every time, the makers still do it with conviction. It also shows us that there is an expiration date on a criminal career, that there will always be someone who wants to be the greatest and is willing to do anything for it. That also happens to Ferry, who realizes that his time is now over. They keep the ending open, but it looks like Ferry is really done now. Can the Brabant drug king really retire now?
Image: Still ‘Ferry 2’ via ©Nyk Dekeyser / Netflix
