Femke Boot (Katja Herbers) is a columnist who lives with her teenage daughter Anna (Claire Porro) in a nice suburb in The Netherlands, with a nice middle-class lifestyle and generally in a state of comfort. Well, almost. As a television discussion show she appears on reveals, the reaction on the internet to a woman with opinions, especially relating to how online discussions should really be held with a lot more restraint and a lot fewer threats of violence, is typically extreme: no restraint and plenty of threats of violence. But Femke cannot help scrolling through social media to see the worst impulses of humanity - mainly men - directed at her for requesting that folks be nicer to one another.
There must be a solution to this madness... Maybe there is, but Femke's is not exactly sane. Online trolls can ruin a person's mental health, it's true, and online shaming goes hand in hand with unsolicited attacks for causing damage, but never, it seems, to the actual trolls. As our heroine discovers, being the subject of this unwanted attention can have a seriously detrimental effect, and her stress levels become such that she cannot cope anymore, but as this was a comedy, albeit a black comedy, she does not resort to self-destruction - she resorts to other people destruction. It starts with her neighbour, who seems perfectly polite when she speaks to him.
But he has been conducting a hate campaign against her on Twitter (he and an army of others) and insists on noisy DIY while she is trying to work on a new book. Faced with this rank hypocrisy, there's only one thing she can do. No, not confront him, simply sneak up on him while he is on the roof of their semi-detached and push him off, murdering him. It's such a perfect example of how lashing out seems like an ideal way of tackling your aggressors that it has the desired, humorous effect, yet there's that undercurrent of unease: it's really not that simple, there are consequences to every act of hatred, and Femke has given in to what her enemies are guilty of, and indeed gone worse.
But as an instance of asking, well, where does this end? With actual violence? It was a pertinent question to pose since a terrible outcome seems to be the only result the trolls would be happy with - as long as it meant it would be terrible for their victims, rather than themselves. When it's their ass on the line it's a different kettle of fish, but admirably screenwriter (Daan Windhorst) was well aware of what a can of worms trying to police the internet and ultimately, the thoughts and feelings of anyone who leans on bullying to boost their ego in the so-called real world would be. It's a sad fact of life that there are so many who need someone to not merely look down on but consciously attack, be it emotionally or even physically, to get them through their lives with any sense of self-worth.
Yet it appears to be hardwired into the brains of millions. Anna learns about free speech in school, and how it is a good thing, but time and again as her mother conducts a killing spree the film wonders how good it is at all. Does Femke's horror author boyfriend Steven Death (Bram van der Kelen) have right idea? Just have a sense of humour about it all and accept some people are always going to be arseholes, but don't read the comments and don't let it ruin your day? Kind of difficult when those arseholes have invented a story about you being a paedophile to get rid of you. Femke's toolbag of murder weapons may offer her catharsis, but it's indicative of what a mess allowing offensive opinions to run free across a public forum has turned out to be. The sorry conclusion here is that public cannot be trusted to behave themselves and any respect that we have been taught to treat others with simply goes out the window, to put it mildly. Although this was a funny film, peerlessly acted by Herbers, on reflection it was not as funny as you might think. Music by Jeffrey van Rossum.
Aka: De Kuthoer (don't look that translation up online).
