Quality Time (2017)

Directed by: Daan Bakker | 86 minutes | comedy, drama | Actors: Noël Keulen, Fred Goessens, Giulio D’Anna, Bert Bunschoten, Ria Marks, Thomas Aske Berg, Tomas Alf Larsen, Steve Aernouts, Laura Mentink, Anneke Blok, Michiel Romeijn, Guido Pollemans, Willemijn Kressenhof

In the Netherlands, the experimental film is reserved for the museum. That is not right, as filmmaker Daan Bakker proves with ‘Quality Time’. The film pushes the boundaries stylistically, but tells a universal story in content. Despite the experiment, characters remain recognizable at all times.

‘Quality Time’ is divided into five apparently separate stories, almost biographies, which together reveal an overarching tragedy. The first story is immediately the most experimental. This is done as follows: the image is completely red, with a white dot in the middle. That dot symbolizes the character Koen, who tells a story about the excessive consumption of ham and milk at family parties. Not that he likes to eat sick, but he doesn’t want to begrudge them the pleasure he brings to his family. When Koen starts his story, the dot vibrates with it. His voice is distorted. The exact story has been added with the help of subtitles.

Koen lives in his own compact circle. He is responsible for his own choices and his own happiness. But he is also alone. In his efforts to please others, he forgets himself. When his immediate neighbors try to stand up for him, he doesn’t follow through. In this way Koen will never be able to cross the boundaries of his own circle, just like all other circles that enter the image over time. Life is a struggle, the people wandering.

That idea is continued in the film’s sequel. Stylistically, director Bakker always seeks a different boundary, thematically the film remains steadfast. For example, in the second story, in which Stefaan is central, Bakker uses wide establishing shots that represent the difficult quest for steadfastness. Stefaan, at the request of his therapist, has moved back in with his parents. There he tries to give direction to his life with a new hobby. By photographing important places in his life and rediscovering himself, he hopes to take back his place in society. The expansive frameworks, and his position within them in relation to others, show that that ambition has not yet entered the realm of reality.

The third story turns things around. Here the frames are oppressively small, as if there is no escape from life. This is also experienced by the Norwegian Kjell, who tries to get rid of his social fears with the help of a time machine. However much he tries to undo passages from his life, in the end changing does nothing. That powerlessness returns in story four, in which Karel, after being abducted by aliens, returns to his family as a deformed mutant. He himself is no longer capable of anything. He has become a plaything of life.

Bakker saved the strongest story for last. In it, the introverted Flemish Jef meets his Dutch in-laws for the first time. The approach is slow. If the mother’s child wants to prove himself extra, he achieves the opposite effect. Jef sinks more and more into a quicksand of tragedy. It is a human story, and therefore the most painful. But that intensity wouldn’t have come about without the stories before it. It is precisely because of the experimental character of ‘Quality Time’ that basic emotions are evoked, instead of interpretations based on ratio. The solid ground of reality is also pulled away from under the feet of the viewer.

The result is a playful, slightly absurdist but also confrontational film. The experimental, widely meandering form is of great added value due to its efficiency and the proof that there must be room in the cinema for these kinds of films. This is also apparent from the fact that even the YouTube generation can appreciate the fragmented experiment. At the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the youth jury awarded ‘Quality Time’ with the prize for best film.