“I think we made a film with Narcosis which enchants you a little”

Suppose someone types the name “Martijn de Jong” into Google. For example, someone from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who participates in the decision-making process for Best International Picture Oscar nominations. Then there first dives the Dutch mixed martial artsfighter Martijn de Jong op. And not his namesake, the director of the Dutch Oscar entry narcosis. Also on IMDB, the world’s most widely used online movie database, several Martijnen de Jong are now featured.

“My producer said, Huh, did you work on six martial arts movies?”

Martijn de Jong (1982) – the director – will fly to Los Angeles next month for the screening of his feature debut, starring lead actor Thekla Reuten. “When they see me there, during the interview that will follow, they might think: my God, she lost weight.”

The director sits at the table next to his screenwriter and girlfriend Laura van Dijk (1972), in the De Baarsjes district of Amsterdam. To the interviewer, who had mentioned the other Martijn de Jong: “But what exactly was your question?

Has he ever considered a stage name? After all, the Dutch film world already had the necessary De Jongs: Ate, Mijke, Sam.

‘Maybe it would have been better, yes. De Jong is so common it’s almost funny.

“Van Dijk and De Jong,” notes Van Dijk.

“What’s funny, says De Jong, is that I thought one day: if I become a top football player, it’s not necessarily the best name. Frenkie de Jong: I understand. Martijn de Jong at the ball: a bit sleepy. But when I started as a director, I never thought: oh, it’s good for the audience if they know my name too.’

September Film, the Dutch distributor of narcosis, did not hesitate. “A film by Martijn de Jong” is highlighted on the poster and in the trailer. “I asked: how will my name attract more people? No one knows me yet, do they? It’s about the suggestion, they said; people think: oh, I must know that name. So now it’s too late for a stage name anyway. I will continue as Martijn de Jong.

Hundreds of post-its

For two years, the film in the making covered an entire wall on the first floor of the filmmakers’ apartment, cut out into several hundred post-its, with colors to mark the scenes and time indications. Today, there are still three orphaned pieces of paper, towering over the advancing toys of their young children. Brief script clues, instantly recognizable to whom narcosis saw: ‘John drives away’, ‘Boris dive’ and ‘piano’.

John is the father played by Fedja van Huêt, professional diver. He can no longer emerge from the eerily deep South African Boesmansgat, which upsets his family. Boris is his son, who, like his sister Ronja, tries to come to terms with their father’s sudden absence in his own way, while mother Merel, filmed in survival mode, tends to deny it. And the piano, which stands in the garden of their attractive but maintenance-intensive detached house; John plays the melancholy melody of the leitmotif (by Canadian musician Patrick Watson) which returns in the final scene.

Van Dijk, staring at the wall now virtually without a post-it: “It wasn’t like coming home and giving up for a while. I think we’ll be looking for an office for the next movie.

De Jong: “It’s also nice to immerse yourself in the film like this. But everything is part of this home office: your relationship, the kids.

grief and loss

narcosis was quickly classified as a “mourning drama”, which is not quite in line with the filmmakers’ intentions. Van Dijk: “It’s a bit of a cachet: mourning, loss. It’s in there, it’s true.

De Jong: “A film about mourning – if I read it that way, I wouldn’t be very excited. While I think we’re with narcosis made a film that enchants you a little, shows you another world. That’s the beauty of cinema, isn’t it?

Van Dijk: “Crying in front of a movie can sometimes be nice too.”

De Jong: ‘But there are also funny moments, it’s not a very heavy film. After the first public performance, I spoke to someone who said to me: I now want to go home and cuddle my children for a week. This feeling.’

Van Dijk, who also wrote the screenplay for the award-winning children’s film My very weird week with Tessgot the idea from two podcasts narcosis. One concerned a diver who disappeared in Boesmansgat, and the other the phenomenon wind phone, the phone booth imagined in Japan after the tsunami for people wishing to call their deceased relatives. Also in narcosis figure such an unconnected telephone booth. ‘What if the body of your loved one is not found? This question intrigued me. How do you handle it then? And children can also cope with grief very differently from adults. Ronja is still the age of magical thinking in the film. Boris is a little older, he is angry with the world.

De Jong: “Merel knows that John is no longer alive, but at the same time she has no proof: his body has not been found. Then you can get stuck in denial.

That Merel in the film is also a medium, or “clairsentient”. And when she cautiously resumes her professional practice after a while, her husband John bursts into her sessions. narcosis is told in such a way that the viewer does not necessarily have to accept the supernatural; this can also only take place in Merel’s head.

“When I spoke about the film, I noticed something shameful in me”, says Van Dijk. “Okay, it’s coming: and she’s clairvoyant.” I always find it exciting. How are people going to react to this? Are they quitting? One thing, here in the sober Netherlands. I also think it’s not possible. And yet it intrigues me.

De Jong: ‘Whether or not you believe in psychics shouldn’t matter. The movie should work anyway.

No relationship yet

De Jong grew up in the village of Simonshaven, below Rotterdam. Clothing designer mother, urban planner father. Van Dijk comes from a family of artists from Amsterdam: flamenco dancer mother, musical actor father Bill van Dijk. She also writes screenplays for her sister, director Nova van Dijk. De Jong and Van Dijk had no relationship at the start of their first collaboration Freea TV drama about a girl who corresponds with a lifer.

So yes. narcosis is in no way biographical, nor is it free from any personal element. Father John’s habit of hiding exceptionally well when playing with his children, for example. “Martijn already had that before we had kids,” says Van Dijk. “Then I rang his doorbell, went upstairs and suddenly he was gone, hiding. Sometimes I really couldn’t find him. The movie house also looks like the director’s parental house. And then there is his mother, with whom the production designer started talking to imagine the spiritual world of Merel.

De Jong: “My mother is clairvoyant. I was wondering if it should be in the movie. You soon see Jomanda in a flowing dress in front of you, I want to protect my mother and Merel from this image.

Van Dijk: “What I liked about Martijn’s mother, when I heard about it, was that she wasn’t special about it at all.”

De Jong: “We put Merel soberly: boots in the mud, grumpy, but not floating. She happens to be able to do this, just like anyone else can do anything else. And my mother, she’s a normal, sweet, intelligent woman. I don’t think she’s doing what she thinks she’s doing. But at the same time, it’s not wrong either. She feels something, it’s sincere. And she helps people with that. I only hear stories from people who are grateful to him.

Close to the circus

On the advice of Thekla Reuten, who gained a career overseas thanks to the Oscar-nominated feature film Twins, De Jong is in talks with agencies in Los Angeles. “We’re going in November, the shortlist of nominations will be announced in January. It’s especially nice to be so close to the circus. Thekla has been doing this all her life, I’m so glad she’s coming. With her, someone really comes into play: eloquent, humorous.

The editorswho promote the campaign and press moments narcosis in the United States, De Jong has already asked: what are you open to? “Let’s turn around,” I replied. What can be done? The funny thing is that no one has seen the movie yet. So I think: go see first. At the same time, I spoke to Joost van Ginkel, whose film The Paradise Suite was once the Oscar entry. Joost later learned that he had behaved a bit too modestly in Los Angeles. So you have to be careful about that too.