Best friends Amin and Mitchell work as street coaches in the lively neighbourhood of Schijndrecht. Not exactly a flashy job, but that changes when residents suddenly turn into creepy, slimy creatures. Together with a motley crew of local residents, the duo gets the ultimate chance to prove themselves.

The story of Crypto Boy kicks off in Amsterdam East, where young deliveryman Amir dreams of a better future but gets no further than delivering orders for Burrito, his father Omar's outdated Mexican restaurant. Meanwhile, their neighbourhood is in the midst of complete gentrification. Convenience stores are being replaced by trendy coffee bars, sushi shops and fitness studios – and much to Amir's frustration, his stubborn father is ignoring all his ideas for modernising Burrito. On the other hand, Omar sees his son as an irresponsible idler who isn't capable of taking over the restaurant. When a large real-estate company buys up the block and doubles the rent, father and son are at odds and in danger of losing the restaurant, and their home, for good. But when Amir ends up at a meetup with a charismatic young crypto entrepreneur, he sees a way to solve all their problems. Determined to show his father what he is worth, Amir loses himself in the rapidly growing crypto start-up while Omar watches with suspicion as his son drifts further away.

The unrelenting words ‘with a knife’ change everything. A TV personality is briefly distracted whilst filming her pet project – ‘a warm, endearing portrait of society’ – only to discover her camera is gone. The police, however, hardly take her report seriously and the insurance company doesn’t want to pay out – until she lies, saying it was a robbery involving ‘a knife’. Which immediately has huge consequences for Yousef, the young suspect. Director Sam de Jong makes visually effervescent films, as was shown by his debut, PRINS (2015), and GOLDIE (2019), filmed in America. In Met mes, everything is in overdrive: from the musical score to the striking camera angles and movements, from the synthetic shell suits and green eyeliner, to the game show sound effects intended to emphasise emotions. The colour filter creates a world of candy cane tones, a neon 1980s video fantasy in which Hadewych Minis wears dental braces and Gijs Naber has a rat tail haircut. In this artificial environment, actor Shahine El-Hamus's portrayal of teenager Yousef has something vulnerable about it, under his ever-changing hair colour. He is surrounded by all manner of respectable adults, who don’t want to hear his side of the story or just act in their own self-interest. Using subdued humour, De Jong tells a story of hypocrisy and stigmatisation. One that is painfully common, but, if you think about it, at least as surreal as the absurdist visuals.