The 16-year-old Vietnamese Thuâ`n wants to go to England to work and send
money to his family. After a long smuggle trip in the back of vans,
freight train wagons, and cargo spaces of trucks his journey ends when Dutch border guards find him in a van, together with other Vietnamese migrants. Thuâ`n ends up in a protected shelter for
unaccompanied minor asylum seekers, but runs away after a few days. Back in
the hands of the smugglers. Thuâ`n is locked up in an apartment on the top floor of
a large apartment building.
The apartment is full of
marijuana plants.
The outside world doesn’t exist
here, all windows are blocked. Thuâ`n is the 'gardener' tasked with caring
for the marijuana plants until harvest. He is instructed by the 17-year-old
Dutch Carlo, a talkative boy who has been given the responsibility for the
marijuana plantation by his boss and father Jos. Thuâ`n
meticulously takes care of the marijuana plants, combats pests, plays with
beetles. Thuâ`n sees it as a rite of passage, a step that is necessary to reach England. Meanwhile, Thuâ`n starts to observe
weird things: a cannabis seed grows in his cheek, his saliva is green and scabs
of moss grow on his arm.
In his small bedroom, he endlessly
plays a racing game on an old video game console. Always the same circuit in
London. This is his window to the outside world. After a while Carlo joins the game and gradually, a
bond forms between Thuâ`n and Carlo. The guard-prisoner relationship fades into
the background. The marijuana plantation and the racing game are
their shared world where they can briefly escape their roles. Against the rules Carlo even takes Thuâ`n outside
to a nightclub. Afterwards, Carlo stays for the night, and the next day they
wake up naked next to each other. Confused, Carlo leaves the apartment, leaving
Thuâ`n to his own devices. By now, Thuâ`n can no longer distinguish reality
from delusion. His family suddenly appears, the marijuana plantation turns into
a jungle, and the pixels of the racing game turn
into a real city where he drives around in a sports car.
After robbers enter the apartment
and steal the marijuana harvest, Carlo's father Jos blames Carlo and threatens him. Thuâ`n strikes Jos
with a baseball bat and Thuâ`n and Carlo flee to the city. After a night out they both realise that the end of their friendship is here. Carlo has to return to his family, and Thuâ`n has to go to
England. Carlo brings Thuâ`n to a smuggler in the harbour of Antwerp.
In the dark cargo space
of a truck Thuâ`n is breathing heavily. The air is dark and suffocating. He kicks the wall to
attract attention from outside. It's futile. The last light from a cell phone
goes out.
Thuâ`n is in the racing game.
He parks his car on a dune by the
sea.
He steps out and dissolves into
the pixels.