When the wannabe star and discarded youngest daughter of a twisted family hears her older sister has been chosen to audit for a TV singing show, she does everything in her power to escape her parents’ iron hold and reach the spotlight. Little does she know, she’ll have to deal with the shady bosses of VISLAND.

The first fiction project of the slightly cynical director Frits Mossel, this short film is an absurd dark comedy, fully produced by Trip to the Moon Films, and currently in the works. This page will regularly be updated with news, articles, and inspiration. You can also follow the film on Instagram here for the latest updates and behind the scenes.

STATUS: Production
SUPPORT: scroll down

DIRECTOR & WRITER: Frits Mossel
PRODUCER: Max Grappherhaus
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Max Houtman
ART DIRECTOR: Iris Schuttevaar

Making a film isn’t easy, there’s a gruelling process behind the production of every motion picture that often goes unseen. Fortunately, our stalwart friends have helped us pave the way for this project to start.

The shooting of VISLAND is happening as we speak. The funding goal has been achieved thanks to our many fans! We would like to take this chance to thank everyone who believed in us. This trust will be transformed into the end-product of this production. We want you to see this

So as a treat, while you wait, we would like to show you some – very exclusive – behind the scenes.

Can you already understand what is happening or are you interested in the process of making a short-film? let us know via the links below.

INSTAGRAM / TIKTOK

Before one can even tackle what VISLAND is, one must meet Frits Mossel. The mind behind the script is an oddball of an artist. We meet him in a dimly lit bar in the Red-Light District, where the smell of beer floats, and the floor is sticky. He sits, black leather trench coat on. Born and raised in a small Dutch town and an otherwise obscure past, it is his strong belief that he has a duty to express and give a face to “the tragedy of nothingness”, that drove him to the arts.

Mossel encountered nothingness in unlikely places: on the corner of a dim-lit street, in a bus packed with people or in an advertisement by the side of the road.. “Stripped of all layers of association, devoid of meaning, it reveals itself, lurking in the shadows, waiting for someone to come too close”. It is from where we originated and where we will all return to eventually, according to Frits. This thought is keen to draw anyone who thinks into somberness, but according to Mossel it shouldn’t. “The opposite actually”. It is the embrace of the tragedy of nothingness that helps us to fight it properly: it opens us up to a range of choices that were unseen before because we were too busy looking away. 

VISLAND: An “absurd story ending in nothing.”

Mossel had to find a way to express this tragedy of nothingness before it could be embraced. Art became his weapon, a form of expression to recognize the “smoke and mirrors” of life, that it’s not necessarily happy nor hopeful, but that there is still something there worth exploring. First, painting became his way, metaphorically. “I could channel my fears, my worries, my discontent, the tragedy.” Then came writing. Short stories, he wrote during the night, mostly, as a way to process “the uncertainty.” One of them would become VISLAND. An “absurd story ending in nothing,” he says proudly.

As the meeting progresses, Mossel mentions his inspirations. As expected, they follow a certain satisfied dissatisfaction. Artists content in discontent or nothingness. Artists who channel hopelessness into creation. He mentions Werner Herzog’s Even Dwarfs Started Small, in which a group of dwarfs rebels against the tragedy of nothingness in an anarchical desert. Then comes Francis Bacon’s and Jeroen Bosch’s paintings, both aestheticising horror and pain, and Giacometti’s sculptures, which “strips down our forms.” Franz Kafka also makes an appearance, especially with his novella The Castle, a hopeless quest to reach a castle, which, you guessed it, is unreachable. 

“This is all true” Mossel repeated throughout this conversation, somewhat worried he wouldn’t be believed. Because Mossel wants to be known, understood. “It might be self-indulgent”, “all about status”, but this desire to reach some sort of fame “lurks inside of me”, this desire to “walk in a room and everybody knows you.” In that sense, VISLAND is somewhat autobiographical. It is all about this obsession to reach a certain place, to be known, to find fame. The characters of VISLAND might not be aware, but Frits is, acutely. “You can never be fully known.”

An obsessive quest for fame, unusual desires, and some video exchange.

So here is VISLAND. An obsessive quest for fame, unusual desires, and some video exchange. Mossel defines his film in five words: obsession, status, dogs, and fried food. He adds that, if one were to step into the world of VISLAND they would step into sugar, a saccharine-smelling syrupy world, the set of a musical. But the sugar is here only to hide the “fear” and “nothingness” He, like Giacometti, wants to strip down the layers of our humanity to expose the absurdity of it all. “Challenge,” he repeats. Challenging the viewers, bring them into his universe, make them uneasy. The Dutch film industry desperately needs this. We need to explore more, experiment more, show we can do something different. “Some will hate it,” he says, but he hopes for it. Some visceral reactions would mean he has done his job right.