Ondertussen in Nederland - Emoticons

Five girls, from various social strata and different age groups, with one striking denominator: to them, the Internet is almost more important than the real world. Heddy Honigmann introduces each girl via the Internet screen where they have the courage to be themselves. Next, we see the girls in their real environment and we hear their poignant stories: Saskia is pestered, Sanne is depressed, Samantha has been raped, Zineb has lost the chance of a residence permit and Inge lost her mother to breast cancer. On the Internet, they find people who make them feel secure, they play online games, often violent ones, they chat with distant relatives or they help other people. Filmmaker Heddy Honigmann interviews the girls and captures their meetings - virtual and real - with Internet friends. This yields touching scenes, like when Sarah will shortly see her chat friend for the first time, an event that has been giving her the jitters for weeks. The filmmaker manages to make the girls drop their guard, something they usually only do in the seclusion of the digital world.