After the death of her great love, Bobby is confronted by an unknown Moluccan boy with the hidden life of her partner. What begins as grief grows into a penetrating search and the question: can you continue to love someone who turns out to be a stranger to you?
Pretty Girls is a performance about loss and shame, but also about resilience and the courage to hold on to love when the truth is abrasive. A thriller at the intersection of personal tragedy, injustice against women, and a colonial legacy that continues to shape and distort lives generations later.
Written and directed by Melissa Knollenburg, who, after Kantjil en de Tijger, TROOST, and Jam Karet — supported by investigative journalist Griselda Molemans (Follow the Money) — turns her attention to the history of women that has been covered up.
“Creating a performance about love in the context of our colonial history is an absurd but educational process. Time and again, I meet people who carry special, hopeful, but also heartbreaking stories with them. Curiosity about all those perspectives is what motivates me to keep writing.”
- Melissa Knollenburg
Melissa Knollenburg (1994) seeks in her work for stories of a young generation about friendship and love in a time full of clashing perspectives. Her characters are looking for connection and ways to continue loving in a divided society.