Guido Coppis’ debut feature Bijt has lost all colour, except for the sombre orange hues that imbue the film. Dark clouds seem to gather on the soundtrack as well – as if roaring thunder is about to break out. Is there even a shimmer of hope?

Reinout Scholten van Aschat is Mark, a young man whose life seems an utter failure. He is socially inept – to put it mildly, brimming with repressed feelings and a sense of self-hatred close to boiling point. The dismal bleakness of his living environment offers no reprieve. Everything seems intent on pushing him into the abyss. Even when he plays the trumpet, it sounds depressing. But then, at his grandfather’s deathbed, Mark meets Lisa (Frieda Barnhard). She’s almost as destructive as he is. Will love bring solace after all?

It's genuinely hard to imagine that Bijt is Guido Coppis’ (b. 1998) first feature outing. The film is a quiet stylistic exercise with an extremely dark sense of humour and seems to place itself just beyond the framework of our reality. 

– Christiaan Boesenach