Febe Simoens

Being in a new relationship is never easy, but when children are involved, everything changes radically. The budding love between Joris and Eva gets into higher gear when their familes meet each other for the first time.

Neighbours bring their leftovers, volunteers feed and clean them, and children come to pet them. When they’re alone, the pigs enjoy a playful, muddy life – scratching, wriggling and eating together. However, the outside world becomes a continual disruption. Director Jimmy Kets brings a tenderness and humour to the pigs’ existence, whilst highlighting their lack of agency in their relationship with humans.

Alice finds it difficult to find her place in the group and considers her friend the cause. An unspoken game of challenges arises.

For months Eva Van Tongeren maintains a correspondence with the convicted and incarcerated paedophile Thomas. With a voice-over she reflects upon his thoughts and how their atrociousness resonates through her daily life. Despite her unchanging incomprehension she seeks the limits of her empathy and tries to find ways to deal with such a loaded subject. As it proves to be impossible to make a connection she looks for something that does bind them. This brings her to the American landscape surrounding Death Valley, a place Thomas always wanted to visit. The filmmaker sends him fragments of quiet landscapes and memories that will never be his.