Silk Road (2017)

Directed by: Mark de Cloe | 89 minutes | crime, drama, romance, thriller | Actors: Olivia Lonsdale, Gijs Blom, Jonas Smulders, Phi Nguyen, Marcel Hensema, Melody Klaver, Ronald Top, Majd Mardo, Nienke van Hofslot, Marloes van den Heuvel, Bart Harder, Boy Ooteman, Boyd Grund, Fleur Voorn, Fabiola Veerman, Howard van Dodemont, Oscar Hoffmans, Daniel Schoemaker, Boudewijn Scholten

MDMA, ecstasy pills, amphetamines, cocaine, LSD and marijuana; It is well known that you can get rich from the sale of these narcotics. But to get involved in the world of drug crime, you have to have balls. Unless of course you can remain anonymous. Maikel S, an ordinary boy from Woerden, is so dexterous with computers that he managed to gain access to the darkest recesses of the world wide web under a pseudonym. Maikel sold all kinds of drugs to people all over the world via the online marketplace Silk Road, which cannot be found by ordinary search engines. The stuff was shipped in DVD cases. At barely twenty years old, he had already made a lot of money that way. It was obvious in his environment that he had so much money to spend, but no one questioned it. As one of the largest online drug lords in the world, S. thought he was untouchable. However, the FBI turned out to have him in their sights and in August 2013 he was arrested at the airport in Miami. The then 22-year-old S. had 20,000 dollars in his pocket and had come to the US to sell his drug empire. He was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Maikel S.’s story is the source of inspiration for ‘Silk Road’ (2017), the Telefilm by director Mark de Cloe, the man behind ‘Life from a day’ (2009) and the two ‘Mannenharten’ films (2013 and 2015). The story is told from the perspective of Daphne (Olivia Lonsdale, ‘Prince’ and ‘No Kings in Our Blood’, both 2015), a twenty-year-old girl who is somewhat shy and lives a good life in the very boring Woerden, until she finds herself in the She gets banned from her neighbor Raymond (Gijs Blom) and his best friend Sem (Jonas Smulders). The boys, who are great with computers, have discovered the Dark Web on the Internet, a secret place where crime is rampant. Anyone can buy weapons, drugs and stolen goods via this hidden digital route. The boys themselves sell pills and when Daphne discovers the possibilities of that trade, she steps in too. Her always so boring life is suddenly a lot more exciting; she earns plenty of money and goes wild in exclusive clubs. In her environment, however, it is increasingly noticeable that she behaves differently. Plus, Daphne, Raymond and Sam discover that there is a dangerous downside to cybercrime. And the tensions between the three are also beginning to increase.

A film about cybercrime, on paper it sounds pretty dry. However, Mark de Cloe has managed to turn it into a dynamic and penetrating psychological thriller that never gets boring. This certainly has to do with the three particularly talented protagonists, who are still young but have already earned their spurs in Dutch cinema. Also actors who don’t need too many words to express their emotions. Their youthfulness contrasts fascinatingly with the dark criminal world in which they live; this is a world from which twenty-year-olds – in fact still children, naive and innocent – ​​usually stay far away, especially if they come from a middle-class environment in a not too exciting city like Woerden. But what makes the film especially interesting is the mutual tension between the threesome and the triangular relationship that arises. The once so good Daphne gets carried away in the criminal world, in which lying and cheating are the most normal thing in the world and mutual trust is vulnerable. The story, as a result, takes unexpected leaps, keeping it exciting and surprising for the viewer. ‘Silk Road’ is a haunting psychological thriller that shows how quickly youthful innocence evaporates when money and power come into play and that beautifully shows how much young acting talent there is in our small country.