Instinct

Instinct (2019)

Nicoline, a criminal psychologist, begins work at a prison where one of her new cases, Idris — an apparently reformed sex offender — is preparing for release after five years of confinement. Despite her professional misgivings, she becomes infatuated with her charismatic, manipulative patient.

Date of release
2019-10-03
TMDB
5.1 / 10 (64)
Runtime
1h 38m
Genres
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Director
Halina Reijn

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 2

Instinct is a 2019 Dutch psychological thriller drama film directed by Halina Reijn in her feature-length directorial debut from a script she co-wrote with Esther Gerritsen and it stars Carice van Houten and Marwan Kenzari. It follows Nicoline, a prison therapist who becomes obsessed with a patient, who is a convicted serial rapist.

Production

Reijn had desire to direct feature films for quite some time and had been exploring various concepts with production company Topkapi Films. The idea for the film came when Reijn was watching a documentary programme called "Liefde in de TBS" (Love in the TBS) broadcast by EO, how about how relationships happen between therapists and their patients in a prison psychiatric hospital.

Reijn pitched the concept to film producer Frans van Gestel, about a psychotherapist who falls for her worst enemy. Van Gestel contacted five screenwriters for the project, of the five, Esther Gerristen was the one hired, who had previously co-penned screenplays for Nena and Craving. Reijn viewed it as an important step at the time as she regarded having a second writer as necessary.

In one of their first meetings they decided to include less female nudity, with a focus on the female gaze. Van Houten, recalled in hindsight asking herself the question regarding her previous projects, "Why am I even naked for this scene?", they also wanted to avoid the objectification of women in the film and wanna show off sexuality without immediately adding female nudity.

They changed the name from Locus of Control to Instinct, realizing most people wouldn't know the term locus of control. Composer Ella van der Woude was brought onto the end of production, as she was shown a finished cut. Before signing on she remarked if they needed her at all, as she thought the film already worked without any music.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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