the mess we make
production design cinematic underwater scenes hybrid-documentary Nominated for NFF Award for Best Dutch Documentary
DoP: Bas Andries
Director: Allard DetigerAfter twenty years of minimal contact with his borderline mother, filmmaker Allard Detiger is called by the police. His mother’s neighbours have been complaining. Her house is totally neglected, and professional help is needed immediately.
From that moment onwards, Allard feels responsible to make sure that his mother receives professional care, but he gets increasingly entangled in the trauma of his own childhood. As his mother's condition deteriorates, the walls that he had built between them fade.
Allard is forced to take a critical look at himself, and face his own trauma, to prevent him from passing it on to his young daughter. Filmed over a period of more than 10 years, ‘The Mess We Make’ is an intimate documentary about a child's struggle to be independent from a parent who won't let go.