love
in a bottle
Produced by
Levitate Film
Written & Directed by
Paula van der Oest
Director of Photography
Guido van Gennep NSC
Production design
Harry Ammerlaan
Financier
The Netherlands Film Fund
Distributor
September Film
Cast
Hannah Hoekstra
James Krishna Floyd
March 2020. After a brief encounter on the airport, two people – both living in a forced quarantine – start a Facetime relationship during the Covid-19 lockdown. How viable is a relationship that could just as well have been a fantasy?
Covid spreads through Europe. Life comes through a halt, people stay home from work, filmmaking has stopped. One activity still can be done, from behind a desk: writing. Paula van der Oest started to write a love story for two wonderful actors she knows well: Hannah Hoekstra (Amsterdam) and James Krishna Floyd (London). Every two weeks, the three read and discuss a new part of the script. And after three months, the script was finished.
With funding from the Dutch Filmfund, a special section called ‘Lockdown Cinema’, the script was shot in the summer. Paula approached the Film academy and found ten enthusiastic and talented students who like to participate in the project, together with DP Guido van Gennep, production designer Harry Ammerlaan and editor Michiel Boesveldt.
Completely corona-proof the film is shot simultaneously with two mini-crews on two locations, the actors never meeting each other, except for at the very last end….
More projects
In development
Stromboli
Recently divorced Sara is alone on a holiday for the first time in her life. After Karel, her ex-husband, took her kids to France, Sara decided to register for a ‘From Fear to Love’ retreat on the Italian volcanic island of Stromboli. Surrounded by shiny, rich, and self-deluding participants, Sara is finally confronted with the dark and painful past she has long been trying to hide.
Released
Colosseum
Heavyweight Kagan leaves kickboxing gala as a winner. He struggles with polarization within and outside the ring. And he's fed up. Tired, he walks into a bar. Will this evening help him forget his worries about xenophobia in his career and his everyday life?
In development
Mata Hari
Mata Hari was a modern woman in an ancient world. Free-spirited. Ahead of her time. This feature film tells her story in four chapters, each of them representing a part of her life. It’s told in a fresh and contemporary way and most importantly: not from a male point of view, but through her eyes.