coming of age, boyhood, self-discovery
The lonely 17-year-old outcast Aike craves attention and finds it online where he conducts dangerous chemistry experiments. Hoping to pull Aike out of his internet bubble, his mother, a hardworking nurse, sends him to the scouts to make real friends. When that fails, Aike feels rejected and hurt. To prove himself to the world, he begins his biggest experiment yet: he secretly builds a nuclear breeder reactor in his mother’s shed, encouraged by a growing group of internet followers. This success boosts Aike’s confidence, and he dares to connect with the boys in his scout group. But when the reactor becomes uncontrollable, the catastrophic consequences are unimaginable. NUCLEAR BOY is inspired by true events.
Joren Molter (1990) is a Dutch film director. His feature debut, SUMMER BROTHER (2023), based on Jaap Robben’s novel, established him as one of the Netherlands’ most promising young directors. The film closed the Netherlands Film Festival, received four Golden Calf nominations, and won the Dutch Film Critics’ Award, along with several international awards for Best Youth Film. His graduation film, GREETINGS FROM KROPSDAM (2016), screened at 54 international festivals and won 13 awards. Joren was the first Dutch director selected for Future Frames: Ten New Directors to Watch at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. His TV film DOST (2018) also won the Noorderkroon Award for Best Feature Film and was sold to Amazon.