With a neon-bled color palette, Sam de Jong’s Met Mes (The Photo Camera), uses its lens to uncover the truths and lies we tell.
With a selection of over 100+ films, this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), which ran from January 26 to February 6, offered audiences an abundance of films to be watched, whether it be retrospectives of filmmakers you may have never heard of (Cinema Regained section), the young exciting voices of up-and-coming filmmakers (Bright Future section), or the competition sections (Tiger and Ammodo Short Tiger Competition), plus many more that deserve to be known and explored. Within the flagship Tiger Competition, I had the pleasure of discovering Met Mes (also known as The Photo Camera).
With vaporwave-kissed visuals heighten with a vibrant pink and turquoise palette in contrasted colors, Met Mes (or The Photo Camera), explores the truths and lies of our personal goals. Game show host, Eveline decides to quit her senseless game show host job, when a sudden appearance change with braces decides for her, to think about her next supposed true passion, documentary filmmaking. The truths she wants to explore is a documentary of the social structure of the neighborhood. As she enters her new career path, she confronts a young teenage student, Yousef, at a neighborhood community, in which him and his friend, Redouan, fed up with their own mundane lives, concoct a plan for robbery. As she approaches Yousef, he propositions her for her cell phone to make a call to his mother. As she obliviously lends him her cell phone, Redouan sneakily robs her of her camera, leaving her distraught and useless. She files a police report that exaggerates a lie, telling the police that she was robbed at knifepoint. This shows a clear set up for the film, but what the writer/director, Sam de Jong, does is display an empathetic story of self-discovery for all.
Samo de Jong, the director/writer of Met Mes, produces an elaborates and empathetic story of deceit under the backdrop of this fun, neon colored, town. With futuristic fashion and retro production design, his ideas and themes are not to be confused with the gratuitous looks. For one, Eveline’s persistence with her disappointing life, gives her a reason to keep the lie going, but when Yousef, the victim confronts her in the climatic scene of the film, the dialogue between the two explores the human nature in a unique way. It is very much so carried by the acting of Eveline and her disbelief in her face, but in Met Mes, Eveline’s goal of her self-proclaimed idea of her documentary, is documented and shows us that in fiction and non-fiction filmmaking, the magic of the spontaneous, yields the truth.
Discover our IFFR 2022 mini reviews: The Plains (Tiger Competition), Yamabuki (Tiger Competition), Met mes (Tiger Competition), Answering the Sun (Ammodo Tiger Short Competition), Urban Solutions (Ammodo Tiger Short Competition), Impersonator (Short & Mid-length), Third Grade (Big Screen Competition), Barbarian Invasion (Harbour Section).
