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“We Had a Plan,” a documentary about a gay Filipino couple who head home after a decade as undocumented cleaners in the Netherlands, has been picked up for international sales by Paris-based Cat&Docs ahead of its world
premiere at IDFA.
Variety has the exclusive first look at the trailer.
Directed by Suzanne Raes and co-directed by Venice De Castro Atienza, the film will bow in the Luminous strand of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, which runs Nov. 12-22. It is also in the running for IDFA’s Best Dutch Film Award.
Paul and Daniel spent 10 years cleaning in the Netherlands without papers before moving back to the Philippines, where their relatives now regard them as rich. They arrive with big ideas for the life ahead of them. Money and optimism only go so far, though. As the savings from their years abroad run down, and the limits on their freedom as a gay couple close in, the relationship comes under strain.
“We shaped this film into a bittersweet love story about a couple whose relationship is tested by global inequalities in wealth, social security and acceptance of queer people,” Raes said. “It reveals the sacrifices migrant workers make to achieve their goals, humanizing an often invisible workforce.”
De Castro Atienza said that Paul and Daniel, after 12 years away with no way of going back, had gambled everything on a better future for themselves and their family. “As a Filipino filmmaker who has also left my home country, I approach their story with closeness and intimacy, recognizing the collective experience of choosing between leaving to provide for loved ones and staying to share a life with them. In ‘We Had a Plan,’ we witness two people try to change the configuration of the world to build a place for their love.”
Catherine Le Clef, president and CEO of Cat&Docs, said the company had responded straight away to the warmth of the film and its likable protagonists. “Through their personal stories, the film offers a deeply human perspective on a foreign workforce that is too often reduced to statistics, stereotypes or simply made invisible. It is also an important reminder of the very real human cost behind the systems that depend on their labor. We felt that this combination of intimacy, tenderness and social relevance made the film particularly powerful and timely.”
Raes’ earlier films include “Close to Vermeer” (2023) and “Where Dragons Live” (2024), the latter earning her a BAFTA Scotland nomination. De Castro Atienza’s first feature, “Last Days at Sea” (2021), debuted at the Berlinale and went on to Visions du Réel, Hot Docs and IDFA.
Ilja Roomans produced for Dutch outfit Docmakers, with Alemberg Ang co-producing for the Philippines’ Daluyong Studios. De Castro Atienza executive produced through Svemirko Film Productions. Cinema Delicatessen will handle distribution in the Netherlands.
Watch the trailer here:
