Nathan Naenen
Writer / Director
Belgium
Nathan is an actor, director and assistant director based in Brussels. As an actor he appeared in projects such Assisen, The Mercator Trail and the popular youth series wtFOCK. In 2022, he gained his master’s degree at RITCS Brussels with his short film Wild Youth. As an assistant director, he worked closely with directors such as Fien Troch, Leni Huyghe and Cecilia Verheyden. ‘While working as an assistant director, I kept developing my own stories. Maybe because of my background as an actor, my films are often small humane stories that explore the broad gala of the characters’ emotions and its variety of nuances. How people interact with each other, their environment and especially themselves is what I find fascinating. I will always try to find a way to transform the introspection of human beings into something cinematic’.
Project
A Tough Boy
Cas (29) is a careful man who works at a family-owned dog shelter on the outskirts of Brussels. When a severely neglected dog named Théo is brought in, Cas devotes himself to taking care of the wounded animal. At the same time, he struggles with the tender connection that emerges between him and his casual lover Joséphine, an experimental dancer. But one day Henry, an old friend from his teenage years at boarding school, walks into the shelter to adopt a dog. At boarding school, Cas (11) shares a room with Henry, an older boy who quickly becomes a brother figure. Their bond deepens over shared mischief and caring for two neglected dogs. But outside their room, Henry keeps his distance, and over time his behaviour toward Cas turns more menacing until one night, he sexually abuses Cas. A Tough Boy is a tender, visceral and hopeful portrait of a man trying to trust closeness again.
