Schneider, a hit man, gets a call on the morning of his birthday. It’s about a rush job but he refuses it, because it is his birthday and he has promised his wife to help her with the preparations for the dinner party. The caller insists that it is an important matter. Schneider is told that the target is Ramon Bax, a writer. He lives alone in a secluded place. "It's an easy job. With a little luck you're back home before noon." Schneider accepts the assignment. What seems to be a simple job turns out to be more than he’s bargained for.
“I almost always begin a project by writing up a synopsis and guidelines that I try to follow. This time I just wrote down a few ideas and started to build the script, so the story was something abstract that developed as I was writing it. I wanted to create a simple exercise in style. I focused more on achieving a certain style and following a specific narrative rhythm. And about my dark sense of humour – my little brother believes that it all started when we read one of Ian McEwan’s first books of short stories as children. One of them is about a girl who drowns in a canal. It was at that moment that something was triggered in my mind, and now it is reflected in my work.” (Alex van Warmerdam)
Alex van Warmerdam
Born in Haarlem, the Netherlands. He attended the Graphical School and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and then worked as a writer, actor, designer and director for both theatre and film. He has won several national and international awards and entered the competitive section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival with Borgman. His movies are marked by his signature dark humour, wry dialogue, absurd plot and meticulous design.