Director Martijn de Jong joins producer Elliot to discuss his feature debut Narcosis. Selected as this year's Dutch Oscar entry, this tender portrayal of familial love & mourning gives our audience a window to Martijn's approach to filmmaking. With a desire to move people and connect with his audience, together they explore his journey as a director from commercials to his first feature. While discussing cinematic moments that have impacted Martijn, he offers a unique insight into the Dutch film landscape as a whole - is a Dutch resurgence on the horizon? 

As longtime admirers of Mia Hansen-Løve's body of work here on the podcast, producer Elliot hosts a very candid and revealing conversation with the French director. In her latest film Un Beau Matin, Mia describes it as her most auto-biographical film to date. Mia shares how she is able to explore such existential questions from such an intimate portrait. Find out what moves Mia to make films and why cinema for her is a tool for understanding her life's journey.  

Directors Sarah Blok & Lisa Konno join to discuss their short trilogy of non-traditional immigrant story of fathers. With an exhibition at this year's Dutch Design Week and the release of their book, which you can buy here, we explore how this hybrid form of fashion-stylised documentaries can offer a more intimate portrayal of their subjects. Candidly, Lisa & Sarah share the inspiration behind this project and why they embraced a more honest lens through which they share these stories.

Joined by the programmers of Imagine Film Festival, the largest celebration for fantastic film in the Netherlands, showcasing the best in fantasy, horror and science fiction. Lauren & Stan along with Tom & Hugo reminisce their first turn down spooky lane. Along this nostalgic path of agreeable scarring, they question what really is a horror in today’s film landscape.

With our partners Mubi, you can enjoy 30 days free of handpicked cinema at mubi.com/lab111, and discover some of the Flick or Treats mentioned in this episode. 

If a loved-one decided they had enough of life and wanted it to come to an end, how would you respond? Director, Floor van der Meulen joins Elliot to explore her fictional feature debut Pink Moon that asks this very question of its audience. In this candid discussion, Floor and Elliot unpack the roots of desire for a self-determined death, is it a reflection of a disconnected and lonely society? With previous experience in documentary filmmaking, Floor explains what it's like switching between the two forms of cinema and why she enjoys experimenting with both.

Are we witnessing the end of American mainstream cinema? Diving deep into this topic, Hugo invites filmmaker, film critic and video essay connoisseur Scout Tafoya. In collaboration with Tucker Johnson, Scout explores this very question with a compelling 10-part video-essay series through the lens of Ridley & Tony Scott as the forefathers of the American blockbuster. Why has Hollywood become so stale? Together, Hugo & Scout discuss the End of History, the end of American cinema as we know it, but what comes next?

Find out how a particular holiday experience led director Christian Tafdrup to write his latest film Speak No Evil (2022). Out now here in The Netherlands, this suspenseful dark comedy about a holiday encounter between a Dutch & Danish family comes with a chilling twist. Speaking with Elliot, Christian shares how his playful approach to horror genre conventions helps create a truly visceral experience.

Here to discuss the mesmerising nature of volcanoes captured through the lens of Katia & Maurice Krafft, director Sara Dosa joins us for a candid talk about her latest documentary Fire of Love (2022). From a treasure trove of 200 hours worth of archival footage, Sara shares why she crafted a love story not only between two French volcanologists but also their life's work - volcanoes. Find out why volcanoes should be seen as something spiritual and what it means to live a meaningful life from these tales of love. 

Here to discuss her latest film Splendid Isolation (2022) and the poetry of cinema, Urszula Antoniak candidly shares why this is a film to be experienced. A 73-minute allegory that invites us all to reflect on our collective confrontation with death in recent years. Find out why Urszula sees this as an uplifting story of our own mortality.

With Joanna Hogg's sequel to her highly autobiographical film The Souvenir (2019), we take a look at one of its stars - Tilda Swinton. There has always been a certain indefinable quality to her iconic acting, refusing to ever be type-casted to a particular role. Tilda has continued to evolve with her incredible range of performances, becoming the muse for many auteurs. What makes her otherworldly, androgynous presence so unique and how does it relate to the roles she picks? Listen to our personal standout moments of a truly great idiosyncratic chameleon.