_Is the grass greener elsewhere?
MARKETS
In The Great Escape, the viewer arrives as the third of three geranium flowers stuck on the windowsill in the bare living room of Patrick, a lonely 38-year-old man. The geraniums are bored to death and constantly frustrated - with themselves, the windowsill, and Patrick. They long to see the world but are literally rooted in place. Patrick, meanwhile, walks freely but never leaves the house, trapped in his own lonely routine. Every day starts the same: watering the plants, making coffee, feeding his goldfish, activating his robot vacuum cleaner, collecting junk mail, then daydreaming by the window.
The monotony gets shaken up when Patrick buys a smartphone to connect with the outside world. The geraniums secretly steal it and post a selfie in a plant swap group, where a woman named Sonja spots it. She convinces Patrick to swap the geraniums for her snake plant. The geraniums are thrilled as they venture outside with Patrick, until a chat with a dying bouquet of roses reveals the outside world isn’t so kind to plants. The ensuing existential crisis leads the plants to their near demise and ultimately to a new home with a rather familiar setting.
Format: stand alone VR experience
Running time: 20'
Status: In production
Versions: English, French, Dutch, Luxembourgish
Year: 2025
Scriptwriter: Joren VANDENBROUCKE
Director: Joren VANDENBROUCKE
Producers: Sven SPUR, Brecht VAN ELSLANDE, Bert LESAFFER (BE), François LE GALL, Marion GUTH (LU)
Production companies: Animal Tank (BE), a_BAHN (LU)
XR studio: Velvet Flare (LU)
With the support of: Film Fund Luxembourg (LU), Flanders Audiovisual Fund (BE), DeMens.nu (BE), Tax Shelter of the Belgian Government (BE), DeAuteurs (BE)
Joren VANDENBROUCKE
Scriptwriter / Director
Joren Vandenbroucke (Ypres, 30/03/1995) is a Belgian animation and VR artist. He graduated from the KASK School of Arts Ghent in 2020 with The West Flemish Pub Experience, the first virtual reality experience in West Flemish.
Fascinated by the performative experience this VR installation entailed, he continued exploring the expressive possibilities of animation film and VR, debuting with the VR opera performance Three geraniums on a windowsill in collaboration with soprano Annelies Van Hijfte. The Great Escape is the sequel to this experience.
Joren Vandenbroucke (Ypres, 30/03/1995) is a Belgian animation and VR artist. He graduated from the KASK School of Arts Ghent in 2020 with The West Flemish Pub Experience, the first virtual reality experience in West Flemish.
Fascinated by the performative experience this VR installation entailed, he continued exploring the expressive possibilities of animation film and VR, debuting with the VR opera performance Three geraniums on a windowsill in collaboration with soprano Annelies Van Hijfte. The Great Escape is the sequel to this experience.
PRODUCED BY
WITH THE SUPPORT OF
