The Story

I enrolled in a digital filmmaking short course at SAE Amsterdam in 2013. And during a lesson about creative thinking, our instructor Pauline, asked us to do an exercise on how to get creative inspiration from our experiences. We listed five memories of each basic emotions: happiness, sadness, fear and anger. 

The next day, we were tasked to write a story and eventually a screenplay of our listed memory regarding fear. We were grouped in class. And my group chose my story to be our short film project. That's how my script was born.

It was my second visit to Amsterdam. The first was hassle-free so I thought the next one, I could be more relax knowing that the immigration officers will only look at my visa and wouldn't ask for anymore questions. Boy, I was wrong! I was taken aside to their office and was interrogated for more than 2 hours. It was a terrifying experience I didn't want to repeat. Until now, whenever I face a Marechaussee, I get so nervous. The trauma will always be there I think.

So I wrote a script about the experience I had but not necessarily the same scenario. Unfortunately, my group mates then changed my script drastically and turned it into a more action oriented sequence rather than my intended psychological driven drama. They made their version into a 5 minute film. It became an unintentional comedy. It was really bad. I did keep my original script though.

Flash-forward to 2015. Although I have a story in mind regarding my final film project, I was conscious that what I want to do may not be easy for the limited time we were given. Having to think of another story, I then went back to this already written script and read it. 

Jackpot! What a coincidence that this story is very timely to what is happening today. Migration issues. But my story is not about a general impression of immigration problems. It's very intimate. It won't be about right or wrong and good or bad. It's about my characters' humanity in the story.