Name: Meneer L.
Duration: PT70 min.M
Cast: Mister. L.

Ontdek

An Asian tourist visits the touristic highlights that the Netherlands has to offer. After losing his passport – due to biased assumptions about his identity – he ends up in a refugee asylum situated on a former luxury cruise ship in Amsterdam. Awaiting a solution to his precarious situation, he manages to start special friendships with the residents of the asylum through non-verbal communication. This hybrid film was made with non-professional actors and refugees playing themselves, and is inspired by a true story.

With an aftertalk with Shahab Albonaser, a director and screen writer who graduated in 2023 from the Utrecht University of Arts (HKU). Shahab combines his work in film making with teaching film to recently arrived migrants for the organization Common Frames. With a group of talented youngsters from Utrecht he made the film ‘The Perfume’, which premiered at the Dutch Film Festival in 2025.
Every second Monday of the month there will be new Movies that Matter On Tour film in Louis Hartlooper Complex. Every film has specific side program created by the volunteers of Movies that Matter.

Credits

Regie: Thomas Stokmans
Cast: Mister. L.
Genre: Drama
Speelduur: 70 min.
Land: The Netherlands
Taal: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, Indonesian, Somali, Tigrinya, Turkish
Ondertiteling: English

Omschrijving

After falling asleep under a Dutch windmill and left behind by a group of fellow travelers, an Asian tourist wakes up completely lost and without all his belongings. Walking around Groningen, he is mistaken for an asylum seeker. Because he is not able to communicate his situation, before he knows it, he ends up in an asylum centre that is situated on a former cruise ship in Amsterdam.

Now stuck in the bureaucracy of his ‘asylum application’, he lives together and amongst the other residents of the ship. Despite the fact that he can only communicate non-verbally, he is still able to make friends with them. The refugees confide their stories with him and he is able to understand them on an emotional level. This hybrid film is inspired by true events and is developed with non-actors and refugees who play themselves on the ship where they actually reside.

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