Fortunate Son

On the surface, Jerry is a normal teenager. He’s close to his single mother and his sister, and volunteers at an institution for the mentally handicapped in the quiet coastal Dutch town where he and his family live. But deep down, his anger and frustrations are mounting. To blow off steam, he begins participating in illegal fights, and later on, when his mother chooses a path that distances her from Jerry and his sister, something snaps inside him. Helped by social media, Jerry begins to believe that it’s him against the world, and it gets even harder to control his inner rage. Finally, his behavior becomes so radical that he endangers not only himself but his family. This second socially engaged film from Dutch director Remy van Heugten stems from concerns about the increasing isolation in which young people develop into adults. With Fortunate son, van Heugten offers a harsh but loving warning about the role that consumerism, pornography, misogyny, polarization, and violence have come to play in young men’s lives.