Arábia
96'
Brazil
IFFR 2017
As a child, you should be able to count on a safe home and caring parents, but once you are an adult, Daan Bakker argues, you have to find your place in a confusing world without any road map. The struggle of five young men – who in today’s society could easily be labelled 'losers' – is what he shows in the separate stories in Quality Time, distinct in style but strongly connected in terms of vision.
Koen attends a family reunion and pretends to be as crazy about ham and milk as he once was, until he makes himself sick. Amateur photographer Stefaan wants to record childhood memories, which leads to awkward situations. Kjell, to recover his sense of self-worth, travels back in time and sees himself as a child. Karel was kidnapped by aliens as a child and returns to his loving parents in a wondrous new form. The insecure Jef faces the challenge, on the 31,054th day of his life, of pleasing his new in-laws.
The amazement, the awkwardness and the absurdity of all this is reflected in the way each episode has its own form, ranging from the ultra-minimalist animation of the Koen episode to the realism of the last story. Remarkably, the unusual effects simultaneously create distance, make us curious and evoke a highly intimate atmosphere, delineating the vulnerability of the protagonists with razor-sharp precision. Winner MovieZone Award 2017.
IFFR 2017