Sem Donkers (18) once had the ambition to become an actor. Four years ago he played a starring role in the major musical theater spectacle about Harry Muskee. He is now a young filmmaker who not only acts, but also writes, directs and edits. After his first short film Milkmanhe now presents his second short absurdist film: The history of my bicycle.
The idea for the film arose when Donkers received an old bicycle from his girlfriend’s grandmother. “Before that, I always took the bus, and suddenly I had a bicycle. Then I realized that this bicycle, on which I cycled to school every day, actually had quite a history,” he says in the Radio Drenthe program Cassata.
That idea formed the core of the story, in which an ordinary bicycle functions as a catalyst for memories, youth and small emotions.
The 18-minute short film follows Leon, a man who looks back on his youth through his old bicycle. The story starts with a writer, an alter ego of Donkers himself, who writes a book about the bicycle.
This leads to the childhood of Leon and his mother, in which he is confronted by three men who try to make the bicycle electric. “Everything Leon holds dear, such as his radio and music, is taken apart by them. That really hurts the boy.”
Donkers chose the Belgian singer and presenter Bent Van Looij for the adult Leon. “I was secretly a bit of a fan and already had him in mind while writing the script. He also provided the voice of Paddington Bear and I see Leon as a kind of adult Paddington. That connection suited the character perfectly.”
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