For his hacker film, Thijs Meuwese (39) worked with cybersecurity experts: 'All hacks were performed for real'

Director Thijs Meuwese is debuting his fifth feature film, PH1SHed_, at the Imagine Film Festival. The thriller follows Sasha, a solitary hacker who becomes entangled in a high-stakes conflict with an energy corporation after her landlord falls victim to an online scam. To maintain authenticity, Meuwese collaborated with cybersecurity experts, ensuring that all hacking sequences depicted on screen are technically accurate procedures performed for the production rather than Hollywood fabrications. The film also features a shift toward exploring diverse perspectives, challenging common stereotypes surrounding hacker culture while integrating personal experiences from the filmmaker regarding neurodivergence.

Produced by Maurice Schutte on a low budget, the film aims to capture the transition between traditional hacking and modern artificial intelligence. While Meuwese is known for international projects like Molly and Kill Mode, he emphasizes that this smaller, self-funded approach allows him greater creative freedom to address social themes such as queer and neurodivergent representation. Despite the technical nature of the subject, the movie includes traditional thriller elements to maintain suspense as Sasha faces physical danger alongside her digital investigations.