Director Thom Lunshof’s debut feature, First Zone, premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and follows Fenna, a woman living alone in a wind turbine after flooding submerges much of her country. Rather than presenting climate change through a conventional disaster narrative, Lunshof uses it as the setting for a personal story about isolation, survival and confronting the past. He argues that large-scale “doom scenarios” are less effective than emotionally grounded stories in engaging audiences.

The film draws on Lunshof’s upbringing in Friesland, a low-lying Dutch province protected by dykes but increasingly vulnerable to sea-level rise and weakening flood defences; he says a breach could put 40–50% of the land at risk. Its flooded world is portrayed as beautiful as well as hostile, reflecting his view that nature will adapt while humans may not. Filming largely outdoors and in water brought practical setbacks, including a ruined camera and a storm-damaged set, but Lunshof says these conditions gave the production an authentic, documentary-like quality.