Experiencing Interruptions?

Bibi's Breakfast

A family drama at the kitchen table. About a father and his daughter and their inability to reach out to each other.

A typical weekday. At first sight a typical home. Ben has had his daughter stay overnight. He’s up early to be ready to leave for work and drop her off at the station, when he is hearing the familiar music of an old cassette coming from the kitchen. He enters and sees his daughter Bibi still in her dressing gown. She has prepared a surprise breakfast for him and wants to stay. Just like before.

Bibi starts to look for her father's old mug, explains why a warm tea cosy on your head helps you to get in touch with your feelings and tells him about eating a bee.
Ben can’t bear to listen to her and ignores the childhood game with a hollowed out boiled egg she wants to play. Breakfast turns into a painful tussle. In his efforts to alleviate the situation, Ben shuts his eyes to Bibi’s real need: a true connection and acknowledgement of her struggle in life. It pushes her to the borders of her pain and she becomes a threat to herself. Ben has to set aside his own fear and step into Bibi’s world in order to reach her and give her the one thing she needs: her father’s love and security.
It’s a bitter and dangerous dance of illness, fear, denial, guilt and unconditional love.

  • Sarif Tribou
    Director
  • Willemijn Mignot
    Writer
  • Sarif Tribou
    Producer
  • Willemijn Mignot
    Producer
  • Léon Ali Çifteci
    Key Cast
    "Ben"
  • Nellie Benner
    Key Cast
    "Bibi"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    eitje Bibi
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    16 minutes 2 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 29, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Netherlands
  • Country of Filming:
    Netherlands
  • Language:
    Dutch
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16x9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Sarif Tribou

Director: Sarif Tribou
Screenplay: Willemijn Mignot

After graduating from the Script Academy, Sarif Tribou and Willemijn Mignot decided to unite to further develop their ideas, stories and knowledge. Not only because they have shared interests, but above all, because of their own ways of thinking and talents. Sarif, music theatre director, conductor and musician, thinks in images and sound. His initial inspiration is often pure: beautiful, but still rough diamonds. Willemijn, a law school graduate and former teacher, creates characters with feeling, empathy and intuition. She loves exploring human beings at their most vulnerable.
The filmmakers use these contradictions to complement and create compelling stories.

For the making of Bibi’s Breakfast, Sarif acted as director and used his vast experience as a conductor and music theater director. Willemijn took on the role of artistic producer. This division of responsibilities gave them the opportunity to test all aspects of filming, ensuring they were still telling the story they wanted to tell. This has led to a first, intimate and sensitive debut film. And, if it’s up to Sarif and Willemijn, an artistic prelude to more.

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Director Statement

When I first read the script for Bibi’s Breakfast, I was immediately taken by the enormous sadness that was hidden behind this, basically, very loving relationship between father and daughter. How every attempt to reach each other beyond the usual breakfast-talk gets bogged down in more and more incomprehension and distance is harrowing. It was clear to me more than ever that the greatest tragedies of our lives often unfold in the most familiar environments with our closest loved ones.
We, as filmmakers, found out time and again on set and later in the edit room that form should remain subordinate to this given fact. There is no quick way out of this kind of conflict. Although I sometimes had the inclination, we've tried never to soften the circumstances. In real life, we cannot escape the discomfort and pain of our most intimate relationships without damaging them. If I've learned anything in the process of making this film, it's that even in art, pain has to have a genuine place.

Sarif Tribou