Jasper Pol

Torch Song

An eccentric former pop singer visits her estranged half-brother and turns his life upside down when she finds a muse in his girlfriend.

Hardcore Never Dies

17-year-old Michael dreams of a future as a pianist, but his music education is not going smoothly. In his search for inspiration, he receives help from an unexpected source: his brother Danny introduces him to the emerging Rotterdam “gabber” music scene. Michael is drawn into a world of hard beats, brotherhood and drugs. When Danny's drug business reaches international proportions, the brothers must fight for their lives.

The East

A young Dutch soldier deployed to suppress post-WWII independence efforts in the Netherlands’ colony of Indonesia finds himself torn between duty and conscience when he joins an increasingly ruthless commander’s elite squad.

Neontetra

An aspiring young musician finds himself taking on the care of his father who suffers from Parkinson's disease.

Before Dark

Olaf, an engineering student, lives with his father Vincent. Once a renowned architect, now suffering from early Alzheimer’s disease. Olaf is struggling, because he wants to keep seeing Vincent as the man who knows everything. In the run-up to the birthday party Olaf organises for his dad, their surroundings grow darker; a concrete wall casts a shadow over their house from the garden and Vincent’s condition is deteriorating. Olaf will have to realise that living together in the present is more valuable than persistently clinging on to what used to be.

Today

When Kees (42) and his two children, Roos (12) and Willem (6), stop at a gas station for a quick toilet break, they all shortly separate and go their own way. In this short period of time, each of them witnesses something which makes them think about themselves. The young Willem accidently witnesses a couple making love in the bushes and doesn't know how to deal with this. Roos, a real 'tomboy', starts thinking about who she wants to be, after another girl confuses her for being a boy. Kees, a divorced man, thinks he has a flirt with a younger woman. When he finds out she wasn't flirting at all, he realizes that he has entered a new period of his life where he has to find his place. The three characters separately all experience a small tilt in their lives.