Film Archive

Patrick

Official Selection - Competition 2019 / De Patrick / Belgium 2019

Patrick is in charge of maintenance at a naturist campsite owned by his father. His workshop is as well-ordered as his life, but nothing lasts forever. The loss of Patrick’s favourite hammer has a profound effect on him and sets off a chain of events from which the pensive lad emerges as a new man. A tragicomedy about the importance of keeping an eye on your tools, about existential nudity, among other things, and about people for whom a trailer is their whole world.

Synopsis

Patrick lives at a naturist campsite owned by his father. His life is as well-ordered as his meticulously tidy workshop – that is until he loses his favourite hammer. The missing tool sets off a chain of events that not only affects Patrick, but also reveals the true nature of the camp residents: their appearance may not leave much to the imagination, but they’re undeniably keeping a lot of stuff under wraps. He discovers that the certainties he had banked on are no longer guaranteed, and the young man is forced to find a dose of self-confidence that he never needed before. Mielants’ breezy tragicomedy conveys us to a world where homemade jams and camper vans provide the props for an existential quest for dignity – which is within reach even if the option of wearing trousers is entirely alien to you.

Anna Kořínek

About the film

97 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Tim Mielants / Screenplay Tim Mielants, Benjamin Sprengers / Dir. of Photography Frank van den Eeden / Music Geert Hellings / Editor Alain Dessauvage / Art Director Hubert Pouille, Pepijn Van Looy / Producer Bart Van Langendonck, Sarah Marks / Production Savage Film / Coproduction Versus Production, Topkapi Films, Eyeworks Film & TV Drama / Cast Kevin Janssens, Pierre Bokma, Hannah Hoekstra, Ariane van Vliet, Jemaine Clement / Sales Beta Cinema GmbH / Contact Stephen Lan

About the director

Tim Mielants (Belgium). Selected filmography: The Tunnel (2016, TV series), Cordon (2017, TV series), Peaky Blinders (2017, TV series), Legion (2017, TV series), The Terror (2018, TV series), Patrick (2019)