Fall dead! (2009)

Directed by: Arne Toonen | 10 minutes | drama, comedy, short film | Actors: Bert Luppes, Waldemar Torenstra, Micha Hulshof, Marjolein Ley, Eva Duijvestein

You’ll only get it as a gift: a parachute jump! Look, that’s something different than a CD or a book that you actually didn’t ask for. The birthday boy in this film, Fons, isn’t happy about it at all, but his younger girlfriend thinks it’s a bit cool, so he reluctantly signs a contract beforehand. “Oh, that’s for liability, if something goes wrong,” says Mike, the smooth instructor nonchalantly. Once on the plane, Fons is hooked up to Mike. When the plane cannot take off, because a car suddenly drives onto the runway, Mike is shocked to see his wife Chantal get out. She tells him that their relationship is over and that she is leaving him. “Fall dead!” she calls after him. Mike is close to despair, but when Fons sees his chance to get out of his birthday present and offers to jump another time, Mike claims “I’m okay”. Then something happens that makes Mike change his mind and he decides to follow Chantal’s curse literally. Fons is terrified during the jump. How is this going to end?

‘Val dood’ is a short and humorous film by Arne Toonen. Luuk van Bemmelen wrote the screenplay and Hazazah Film produced. Because of the absurd situation – the direct confrontation with the private concerns of the instructor – the main character, with whom you immediately sympathize, because it is so obvious that he does not want to at all, ends up from one precarious position to another. In a way, ‘Fall dead!’ on ‘The driving test’ by Tallulah H. Schwab (from the BRIEF! 2005 series), in which a driving instructor does not manage to keep his private life separate from his work, with all the consequences for the lady who drives off. Despite the exaggerated situations, the whole comes across believable, thanks to the cast and the natural dialogues. After seeing ‘Fall Dead’ you will think three times before throwing such a curse at someone’s head.