Harmonia

Alumni Maayke Pleijers, Pieter Kapteijns, Indy Kisoen (Production) and Thom Lunshof (Directing Fiction) graduated with the film Harmonia.

While Philine is trying to secure a spot in the most prestigious boat of her University’s rowing club, a mysterious voice penetrates her University campus. The voice is searching for oneness and connection in a world where everyone, trapped in isolation, is pursuing their individual goals.  

The graduating students have this to say: ‘An urgent film, made by a team that collaborated in all respects as a team. Harmonia ended up being a rhythmic and dynamic film that broaches an important and wide-ranging theme: pressure to achieve. This pressure to achieve is very visible and tangible within our own generation; consciously or unconsciously, we are always busy trying to fulfil the expectations that we impose on ourselves and each other. In addition to the pressure to achieve, we lay bare an underlying theme, namely the search for identity and the loss thereof. By using a voice-over, we make a distinction between the individual and ‘the masses’. The voice tells what it sees among our generation; it responds to the vulnerability of the students and in that way hopes to bring them closer together. The audience is given the opportunity to identify with the storyline of our main character Philine in a short space of time, but at the same time the bird’s eye view of the voice provides a different perspective on her reality. We embraced the spirit of experimentation in an attempt to render this abstract form as clearly as possible through partial use of narration to tell the story. We hope that the film is accessible to our generation because of this and arouses a brief moment of awareness about pressure to achieve and the pressure to stand out.’
 
The film came about in cooperation with the Dutch broadcaster BNNVARA.

Watch the entire film on NPO Start.

Loes Komen and Eva Verweij, producers Room for Film: ‘Director Thom Lunshof has made an intriguing and authentic film, which will surprise the audience. He has also gathered a team around him, including a talented scriptwriter and a driven and passionate production team, who bring out the best in him, each other and the story. We saw the entire team pull off a collaboration which any film crew would be jealous of.’

Mart Dominicus, teacher Direction: 'Harmonia stands out due to the way in which the creators give shape to the film. This bears witness  to an extraordinary level of ambition. However, that ambition is also actually fulfilled to an unprecedented extent, especially given the means and options available to a graduation project production. This quality is most visible in the production value of the film: the impressive locations, the beautiful production design, the many extras. But in my opinion that quality is equally apparent in the slick camerawork, the emotiveness and precision of the voice-over, the rhythm of the editing and the emotional thrust of the music. Under the guidance of director Thom Lunshof, an admirable cross-pollination has taken place in which all departments lift each other to a higher level.’