Michiel ten Horn’s “Fabula” – which opens this year’s edition of International Film Festival Rotterdam – follows a “dumb, selfish gangster who gets himself into a lot of trouble,” explains the director. But there’s a “philosophical layer” to it as well.
“It’s a redemption story, almost like ‘A Christmas Carol.’ He’s like a Charles Dickens character who’s visited by four ghosts and put through a real beating in order to learn something.”
In his crime comedy, Jos (“Speak No Evil’s” Fedja van Huêt) is used to bad luck – after all, his family has been dealing with it for years. But as a drug deal goes terribly wrong and, on top of it all, he finds out he’s about to become a grandfather, Jos’ determined to finally break the circle.
“I think the audience likes it when a character is struggling but also trying his best to achieve something. People like a hard worker,” Ten Horn, who also wrote the script, says with a laugh.
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“I live for telling stories and absorbing them, and I’ve always wanted to make a film which would be an ode to stories in general. It’s a fun rollercoaster ride with a poetic edge. It asks all these impossible questions – What is the meaning of life, why are we here? – and answers them in a comedic way, which hopefully makes it less pretentious.”
His protagonist might be on a spiritual journey, but real life is never too far away in “Fabula.”
“As he turns to God, or to the universe, everything becomes so big. Almost too big to grasp. But the answers lie within something really small: small like a tick, which has been sitting on your neck for quite some time and you just haven’t even noticed it yet.”
Inspired by the likes of Wes Anderson and Anders Thomas Jensen – whose “Riders of Justice” opened IFFR back in 2021 – Ten Horn naturally gravitated toward dark humor.
“I think I grew up with it. Also, I have a background in animation. There are some lines I won’t cross, but I am used to the fact that someone gets an anvil dropped on his head and keeps on walking,” he says.
He was “pleasantly surprised” when IFFR selected “Fabula” as the opening film.
“It’s not an obvious choice, I guess, but maybe festivals are no longer determined to always make a statement or deliver a certain ‘message.’ I was never afraid of making things too crazy, but I do hope that people who want to see a comedy will be ‘tricked’ into getting something much more profound.”
Joining van Huêt, Sezgin Güleç, Michiel Kerbosch, Anniek Pheifer, Livia Lamers, Georg Friedrich and David Kross play larger-than-life characters. But keeping things somewhat realistic was also everyone’s goal.
“It’s not like I look for quirky parts – it’s how they develop in my head. But when it feels like every character deserves their own spin-off, that makes me happy. It means they’re interesting. With Fedja, I knew he would nail this after the very first audition. His personality, intelligence and comic timing made Jos believable and, most importantly, lovable,” he says, underlining that despite its local elements, he wanted to tell a “European story.”
“It’s a co-production between three countries [Netherlands, Belgium and Germany] and people speak different languages. I think we pulled it off because it certainly doesn’t feel Dutch. They don’t even speak Dutch!”
He asked his actors to learn a dialect spoken in the south part of the country.
“That’s where I come from and I wanted to reference its folklore as well. It’s a Catholic area, so people grow up with biblical tales about good and evil. It’s a beautiful scenery and it does have its own identity, and the Dutch press has already described the film as a celebration of it. Still, as they say, the more local and specific it gets, the more universal it feels.”
Produced by New Amsterdam Film Company, Fobic Films and 2Pilots, “Fabula” is sold by The Searchers.