THE DREAM.

The idea took shape when Geert Heetebrij and I met in the January of 1999. Geert was working as a story-editor in Hollywood. I had just sold my Dutch-based production-company. Both of us were looking for new adventures. Making a movie was a dream we both shared. I decided to move to LA as well, bringing my wife and kids. I allowed myself three years to dedicate to this new dream.

Geert had a story about the concept of mail order brides on the Internet that he really wanted to explore. He started working on an outline in the summer of 2000.

Meanwhile I was asked to film a commercial for a winery in Perth, Australia. It would be produced by Bijker Productions, a Dutch production company owned by Dirk Jan Bijker. Dirk-Jan and I had been good friends for many years. I told Dirk-Jan about the 'movie-plans'. He liked the idea, himself having dreamed about making movies for quite some time already. After a few evenings with great wine, Dirk-Jan and his wife Tonneke decided to become an essential part of this adventure. Now there were four people carrying this project, pouring in ideas, time and money.

Conceptualizing the set-up on the farm went pretty smooth. Geert's wife had grown up in the Midwest, spending many a summer around her grandparent's roadside vegetable farm stand. More difficult were the scenes that would happen during the romance tour in Russia.

Now Geert and I had been making some documentaries together in previous years. We had experienced the narrative power and emotional energy of a 'real' story. We figured the only way to get a real 'feel' for the story, was to join a real romance tour. We contacted 'A Foreign Affair', one of the biggest companies that organize these Romance Tours, and they were happy to help us out, and so we joined their romance tour in February (after an explicit 'OK' from our wives).

Story by Helmut Schleppi

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