Verwoede Pogingen is a tragicomedy about fatherhood, self-help culture, and the answers we keep looking for in all the wrong rooms.

Matthias (Robbert Bleij) arrives at a personal growth retreat looking for answers and finds out he is going to be a father, which turns out to be the one thing no coach can prepare you for. Stuck in a villa with a megalomaniac coach (Winnie Wilhelm), a group of anxious Gen Z attendees, and a programme full of screaming exercises and self-help mythology.

Verwoede Pogingen was my first credit as executive producer, stepping in mid-process after initially applying for a different role on the production. Taking over from Sterre, I came in to find a project already in motion which turned out to be its own kind of education.

Brenda Narvaez joined as producer and first AD, and her extensive knowledge of budgeting and on-set leadership made all the difference. Working alongside her on a film this specific in its tone: a tragicomedy about self-help culture, accidental fatherhood, and the particular chaos of a personal growth retreat.

It taught me more about what executive producing actually means than any job I had applied for originally.

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