Short of the Week

Play
Romance Jeroen Houben

Gips (Plaster)

Pelle, a 12 year old boy with a freshly broken arm, realises he can’t stay a wallflower forever if he truly wants to experience the warmth of a summer romance.

Play
Romance Jeroen Houben

Gips (Plaster)

Pelle, a 12 year old boy with a freshly broken arm, realises he can’t stay a wallflower forever if he truly wants to experience the warmth of a summer romance.

Gips (Plaster)

Directed By Jeroen Houben
Produced By New AMS Film Company
Made In Netherlands

Inspired by the director’s own family vacations and his holiday jealousy towards the boys with the broken arms (they got all the attention from the girls) Jeroen Houben’s Gips (Plaster) is a sweet and humorous look at the dizzying effect talking to a girl for the first time can have on a young boy. A good natured short showcasing a saturated palette, some impressive production design and an energetic spirit, Plaster is the type of film that wraps you up in its friendly embrace and leaves you feeling all warm inside long after viewing.

Building on the impressive style and storytelling we recently witnessed (only a few weeks ago) in endearing short Home Suite Home, Dutch director Houben is once again on the charm offensive with this latest short. Featuring a timeless aesthetic and narrative, Plaster really is good old-fashioned fun and whether you can relate or not with the film’s main character Pelle, it’s a film that’s just inviting its audience to reminisce on their own summer holidays experiences and budding romances – it certainly seems like this is what the director and his screenwriter were doing when working on their script:

“The absence of mobile phones in the film was really important to us, since that would’ve been an easy escape for a bored or antisocial person”

“Screenwriter Martijn Hillenius and I were set on making something about our own youth”, says Houben, “that would still resonate with kids these days. We decided to set the story in a fairly contemporary world, but remained ambiguous about an exact time frame. Visually I also tried to refrain from revealing a specific time period. For example, the absence of mobile phones in the film was really important to us, since that would’ve been an easy escape for a bored or antisocial person. Even more so, we liked the idea of two kids meeting and then never seeing each other again. No exchanging phone numbers or adding each other on Facebook. To just say goodbye, knowing that there’s someone out in the world who cares for you.”

Now writing the screenplay for his first feature film, you can follow Jeroen’s work on his Vimeo channel or website (below).