Mike Van Diem’s first feature film stars the veteran Belgian actor Jan Decleir (’Daens’, ’Antonia’s Line’), in a power struggle between a father and son. Based on the Dutch classic by Ferdinand Bordewijk, ’Character’ tells the story of the handsome, introvert, but extremely ambitious Katadreuffe who is determined to succeed in life despite, and indeed because of, his father’s attempts to stop him.

The illegitimate son of Dreverhaven, the most hated and feared bailiff in the Rotterdam of the late 1920s, Katadreuffe dreams of escaping his poor background and becoming a lawyer. In his ambition to do so, he loses his first and only love, the secretary of the law firm in which he works, Lorna Te George.

His every move seems to be blocked by his father who wields an invisible power, but he finally achieves the success he has worked for. And just at this moment, his father’s death threatens to destroy everything as Katadreuffe is arrested for his murder. Even from the grave, Dreverhaven holds power over the son who never loved him...

Jan Decleir says that he wanted to be ’invisible’ as Dreverhaven: "Dreverhaven is always the turning point in the movie, but it always happens without seeing him."