Directing
Musician Thijs embodies everything filmmaker Jeroen, by now a burnt-out father, seems to have lost: freedom, courage, and unconditional love. When Thijs announces that he is going to be a father, Jeroen decides to follow him during his preparation for fatherhood. As he observes Thijs, he also begins to re-examine his own life and get a grip on what fatherhood entails.
Comedies love riffing on human shortcomings, and Chris de Krijger’s new short is no exception. Wide-angled shots of Rotterdam in summer present the bumbling Homo sapiens in all its splendour: a jogger who decides to rent a moped for the final leg of his run; a marriage proposal that goes horribly wrong; and a woman who counts her steps but abandons her husband during a walk. From a bird’s-eye view, we witness the insignificance – and ridiculousness – of the flawed Homo sapiens.
In En passant the setting is a public chessboard in the library of Rotterdam Blaak. Many colorful characters are featured. They worry about a game of chess, about rules, about winning and losing, but also about the small and big everyday things. Because in the end this is not about chess at all; it's about being together. People are herd animals. They cannot live without each other and always seek each other out.
Meet Bill; a lumpy dunce who has slipped on fish sticks and killed himself. At the customer service desk of the pearly gates, he is given the chance to relive one last memory. But if he dies, he'll end up in Limbo. Will Bill survive his past?
