The Omega: a podcast thriller about a dystopian Netherlands
“We have extended many elements of current affairs into the future. All hot topics: polarization, extreme ideas, but also the vulnerable position of queers and journalism. We have bundled all of that into a dystopian vision of the future in twelve years’ time,” says Harm Duco Schut in NOS With a view to Tomorrow† Together with Loek Hennipman, he wrote the screenplay for the podcast. “At first we had the idea: we are tackling a distant future dystopia. We could go in all directions with that, but then we: we’ve actually already been living with one in a dystopia, so why don’t we take it closer.”
actuality
“It was really watching the news and seeing what’s going on around us,” Hennipman says. “We’re gay ourselves, a couple and the worries we feel are really there. We really started throwing ourselves into the news and doing research. That was really depressing.”
Gunshot that. “It makes you despondent,” he says. “Hungary, Poland, now also America with the ‘Don’t say gay’ bill. A lot happens when it comes to queer issues. There is also a lot of phobia in the Netherlands.” Both see small messages in the news. “But if you’re going to follow all that, it’s very depressing.”
Vulnerability
“It is very clearly stated in the podcast by Amira, the journalist who makes it, that it is about gays, but it could just as well have been another marginalized group,” Hennipman says. “It’s very much about the vulnerability of minorities in a country where polarization, division and nationalism have become so great.”
podcast
“It is an intense theme, but above all it has become a very beautiful production. Even if I say so myself,” says Schut. “It is a very nice medium. You challenge the imagination to do a lot. It’s almost like a cinematic audio production.”
The duo has opted for a podcast. “You follow a journalist, she wears a body mic and that is for protection. Kind of the same with police officers, who wear bodycams. It’s a bit about the safety of journalists and for that reason you are always realistic with Amira in the scenes. It is a special narrative structure.” It was important for understanding why he hears everything. “Maybe with a camera, that might be possible, but we think: because it’s so intimate, you want to understand why you hear things. That is why everything was recorded by the journalist.”
Crystal clear
The word ‘crystal night’ is similar to the term ‘crystal night’. “We have certainly thought about that. The term well originated from story. Crystal death, but of course also elaboration of the parallel with nationalism and a minority group. It also takes a very long time, it takes place in the future. That happened in the past, so that parallel falls into place,” says Schut.
“In the end, the term was deliberately chosen,” says Hennipman. “It’s a pretty shocking term, it sticks. But what we build against later is this term stays, but the part with niece as without it sticks. Now it sticks.” They don’t want to create a new swear word. “It has to intervene at the keel and still shock you for a while.”
Social importance of engaging podcast thriller?
“It’s about both. If you know how to sell important current themes in an exciting thriller form so that they see about thinking and maybe things they didn’t see before, then I think it is very good to pour that into an exciting thriller form”, says Schut. “I hope that young people will think and then discuss. That is the biggest goal.”
The six-part thriller podcast ‘The Omega’ is here to listen.