People Days (2018)

Directed by: Jeroen van ‘t Hullenaar, Coen Eigenraam | 10 minutes | short film, fantasy, drama | Actors: Julien Croiset, Alice Reijs, Jesse Mensah

You sometimes hear it: someone was born in the wrong body. A boy who feels like a girl or vice versa. But what if an animal is reborn in the body of a human being? With this somewhat bizarre starting point, Coen Eigenraam and Jeroen van ‘t Hullenaar created the Kort! movie ‘People’s Days’.

In an atmospheric nature reserve, foggy and with a beautiful blue filter, we hear nature sounds as if we are standing with our feet in the middle of the mud. In voice-over, the frog tells us how he experiences his life. He understands his environment, how it begins, ends and begins again. He is at peace with it, is happy. But then he is reborn as a human. Not as a baby, but as a grown man. Suddenly he opens his eyes and he is human.

In ‘People’s Days’ we then follow the life of this Allard. Something has changed in him, but what, he can’t put his finger on that. Feeling alienated, he suddenly collapses at work and when his partner asks him what he is doing at home at this unusual time, he spews gibberish. There is only one solution.

Julien Croiset convincingly conveys the confusion to the viewer. His body language speaks volumes. What really sets ‘People’s Days’ apart, however, is the sound. Not only the sounds of nature stand out, even very soft sounds such as the blinking of eyelids can be heard. And the beautiful frog choir is of course a bull’s eye. Please omit crunchy potato chips and cracking popcorn and focus entirely on this feast for your senses!