17-year-old Arend lives with his parents and hasn't come out of the closet yet. His first step into the gay world of love is on a date with handsome Michael, a guy he met on a gay dating site. They arrange to meet and Arend ventures to the other side of the country only to discover that Michael is not quite what he imagined.
Acting
Cornelissen's hopeful vulnerability vs. Boeva's unsettling charm.
Direction
Vogel packs a feature's worth of tension into ten minutes.
Director
Sanne Vogel
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Sanne Vogel made this as her graduation film at the Netherlands Film Academy, and it won multiple festival awards despite (or because of) its brutal economy.
Released in 2013, this predates mainstream catfish awareness but perfectly captures the specific vulnerability of queer teens navigating early dating apps—Grindr launched just four years prior, and this tension was freshly raw.
NL
