Movies that Matter: Mister L

What's on

Year

2025

Language

Diverse languages, English subtitles

Director

Thomas Stokmans

Duration

70 min

An Asian tourist visits the tourist attractions The Netherlands has to offer. After losing his passport, he ends up—due to prejudice and assumptions—in a refugee shelter on a former luxury cruise ship in Amsterdam. While waiting for a solution, he manages to forge unique friendships with the residents of the center through non-verbal communication.

After falling asleep under a Dutch windmill and being abandoned by a group of fellow travelers, an Asian tourist wakes up completely lost and without all his belongings. While walking through Groningen, he is mistaken for an asylum seeker. Unable to communicate his situation, he suddenly finds himself in an asylum center housed on a former cruise ship in Amsterdam.

Now stuck in the bureaucracy of his "asylum application," he lives with and among the other residents of the ship. Despite being able to communicate only nonverbally, he's able to form friendships with them. The refugees confide in him about their stories, and he can understand them on an emotional level. This hybrid film, inspired by true events, was developed with non-actors and refugees playing themselves on the ship where they actually stay.