{"id":22023,"date":"2026-02-18T19:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/18\/dust-review-timely-fictionalisation-of-a-tech-bro-dotcom-bust-that-blighted-rural-belgium\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T19:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:37:16","slug":"dust-review-timely-fictionalisation-of-a-tech-bro-dotcom-bust-that-blighted-rural-belgium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/18\/dust-review-timely-fictionalisation-of-a-tech-bro-dotcom-bust-that-blighted-rural-belgium\/","title":{"rendered":"Dust review \u2013 timely fictionalisation of a tech-bro dotcom bust that blighted rural Belgium"},"content":{"rendered":"

The drama about two startup innovators defeated by their egotistical overreach feels as if it presages these AI times<\/p>\n

The crisis facing a couple of middle-aged Belgian tech bros in the 1990s might be better suited to a European streaming-TV drama \u2013 maybe with the two antiheroes\u2019 travails confined to the first episode, setting up a lengthier intergenerational drama taking us to the present. Nonetheless, here it is: a feature film in the Berlin competition from screenwriter Angelo Tijssens and director Anke Blond\u00e9, handsomely produced and shot, and impeccably acted. But it\u2019s also weirdly parochial, leaving you with the sense that it has not reached beyond its immediate concerns; and it\u2019s not clear as to why, exactly, we need a fictionalised crisis from the 90s inspired by a real-life financial fraud scandal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Well, perhaps the point is that very smallness and sadness: a pathetic tale of the first, almost-forgotten dotcom bust, which holds an omen for our AI-obsessed present. Arieh Worthalter and Jan Hammenecker play Geert and Luc, two balding guys who, in the late 90s, are Belgium\u2019s pinup boys of tech innovation. Their startup company has gone public and made them both very rich, and all their local friends, family and businesses have plunged every cent of their savings into shares. Geert and Luc are now poised to turn the mud of Flanders into a European Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nThe drama about two startup innovators defeated by their egotistical overreach feels as if it presages these AI times
\nThe crisis facing a couple of middle-aged Belgian tech bros in the 1990s might be better suited to a European streaming-TV drama \u2013 maybe with the two antiheroes\u2019 travails confined to the first episode, setting up a lengthier intergenerational drama taking us to the present. Nonetheless, here it is: a feature film in the Berlin competition from screenwriter Angelo Tijssens and director Anke Blond\u00e9, handsomely produced and shot, and impeccably acted. But it\u2019s also weirdly parochial, leaving you with the sense that it has not reached beyond its immediate concerns; and it\u2019s not clear as to why, exactly, we need a fictionalised crisis from the 90s inspired by a real-life financial fraud scandal.
\nWell, perhaps the point is that very smallness and sadness: a pathetic tale of the first, almost-forgotten dotcom bust, which holds an omen for our AI-obsessed present. Arieh Worthalter and Jan Hammenecker play Geert and Luc, two balding guys who, in the late 90s, are Belgium\u2019s pinup boys of tech innovation. Their startup company has gone public and made them both very rich, and all their local friends, family and businesses have plunged every cent of their savings into shares. Geert and Luc are now poised to turn the mud of Flanders into a European Silicon Valley. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The drama about two startup innovators defeated by their egotistical overreach feels as if it presages these AI times The crisis facing a couple of middle-aged Belgian tech bros in the 1990s might be better suited to a European streaming-TV drama \u2013 maybe with the two antiheroes\u2019 travails confined to the first episode, setting up …<\/p>\n

Dust review \u2013 timely fictionalisation of a tech-bro dotcom bust that blighted rural Belgium<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":22024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22023"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}