Sovereign Son
At a homemade tent on the outskirts of Amsterdam, the body of the Englishman Stanley Powton is found at the end of 2021. The Lonely Funeral Foundation, an initiative where poets write a poem for people without relatives, tracks down his son Marcus, just in time for the funeral.
As a baby, Marcus met his father once, and he has been trying to find him for years. Marcus wants to get to know his father posthumously. Together with filmmaker Cindy Jansen, he returns to the place where Stanley lived and died. Without the tent, but with the traces of a life outside society. For Marcus, these are treasures.
As he follows his father’s trail, Marcus’ identification grows. Stanley’s radical withdrawal from society becomes an enticing contrast to Marcus’ own life. His distrust of authorities increases, and he becomes more and more fascinated by male-focused online ideas that promise control, self-reliance, and self-discipline. Using AI-generated images, the film explores how memory and identity are formed and rewritten, and Marcus’ fragile grip on his own story also becomes visible. What started as a search for a missing father gradually shifts into Marcus’ desire to live outside the system. A fresh start outside the Netherlands, on his own terms.
