Nienke Plas will be playing the lead role in TO LIFE!, the second feature from director Paloma Aguilera Valdebenito. She will star alongside Claude Musungayi, Lucinda Sedoc and Delilah Warcup-van Eyck. Shooting starts this week in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Nienke Plas was introduced to the general public through her comedic videos and candid vlogs. Besides creating her own content, she has appeared in supporting roles in various feature films and on stage in her nation-wide sold out comedy tours. In 2019 Nienke was awarded both the Televizier-star Talent Award and the Televizier-star award for Best Online Video-series.
In the film Nienke plays the energetic, Amsterdam-native mother Sandra. When she finds herself facing ‘the system’ due to mounting debt charges with several government agencies, Sandra and her two children engage in this battle with plenty of humor and bravado.
Nienke Plas: “When I heard I got the part, I started welling up instantly, because for some parents the story of the main character is their reality. I’m very happy a story like this will be told.”
About the director
TO LIFE! is the new feature film from director Paloma Aguilera Valdebenito. Her debut OUT OF LOVE (2016, also produced by Topkapi Films) was part of the selection of the International Film Festival Rotterdam and was nominated for a Golden Calf Award for Best Screenplay.
Nienke became her ideal choice to portray Sandra: “I wanted to tell the story of a mother/woman with an endless lifeforce. Sandra has to deal with a plethora of setbacks over the course of the film, from both the government working against her and her love life. And yet she manages to turn every glimmer of hope into a party for her children.”
About the movie
“Go pack your bags right now because … we’re going on holiday ladies!”
When single mother Sandra gets evicted by the government due to fraud, she sells the hotel that is used as an emergency shelter as a holiday to her daughters Harrie and Stella. Taking care of her children while being the main breadwinner seems an impossible task. But Sandra won’t go down without a fight: with heroism and creativity, she gives her daughters the best summer of their lives.
TO LIFE! is produced by Topkapi films in coproduction with the NTR and the Belgian production house Menuetto. With support from the Creative Europe Programme – MEDIA of the European Union, the Dutch Filmfund via Development, Cinescoop and Production Incentive, the Flemish Audiovisual Fund and Belgian Tax Shelter.
Cinéart wil release the film in the Benelux.
© Ali Mousavi & Lisa Wals