The forbidden-love story THE DEBUT (1977) was the first full-length feature from pioneering filmmaker Nouchka van Brakel. Following the theme of Stanley Kubrick's LOLITA (1962) and Michael Powell's AGE OF CONSENT (1969), only this time told from a female perspective, van Brakel's THE DEBUT (1977) tells the delicate story of the impossible love between a teenage girl and a middle-aged married man. Based on the controversial novel by Hester Albach, THE DEBUT is a subversive comedy-drama and the first commercially successful Dutch theatrical film directed by a woman.