Paris-based sales company Cat&Docs has picked up international rights to We Had a Plan, a documentary about a gay Filipino couple who return home after a decade of undocumented work in the Netherlands, just days before the film’s world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). The first trailer for the film has also been released.
Directed by Suzanne Raes and co-directed by Venice De Castro Atienza, We Had a Plan will screen in IDFA’s Luminous strand, a section dedicated to personal and formally bold documentaries. The festival runs from November 12 to 22, 2026, and the film is also in the running for IDFA’s Best Dutch Film Award.
The deal was announced on October 30, 2026, with Variety reporting the acquisition and publishing an exclusive first look at the trailer. Cat&Docs, led by president and CEO Catherine Le Clef, handles international sales for the 96-minute documentary.
What the Film Is About
We Had a Plan follows Paul and Daniel, a couple who spent 10 years working seven days a week as cleaners in the Netherlands without legal papers. They saved money with the goal of building a life together back in the Philippines. They even held a wedding ceremony with friends and family, though they could not legally marry in the Netherlands because of their immigration status.
Their return to the Philippines was warm at first. Relatives and neighbours treated them as success stories, and the couple used part of their savings to buy a house. Reality soon set in. Daniel went back to nursing, working long hours for pay far lower than what he earned in Europe. Paul tried to start a construction business but ran into repeated bureaucratic obstacles. Their savings began to shrink, and the limits on their life as a same-sex couple in the Philippines added another layer of pressure. Same-sex unions are not officially recognised in the country, although a court ruling earlier in 2026 allowed same-sex couples to co-own property.
A possible way out appeared through Daniel’s nursing qualifications, which could open a legal route back to the Netherlands. That path would require the couple to live apart for a period, putting their relationship under strain.
The film’s official synopsis describes the story as a journey toward “a simple life,” touching on migration, LGBTQ+ acceptance, poverty, invisible labour, and elder care. The directors, however, stress that it is above all a love story.
The People Behind the Camera
Suzanne Raes directed the film and wrote the screenplay. Her previous credits include Close to Vermeer (2023) and Where Dragons Live (2024), the latter earning her a BAFTA Scotland nomination.
Venice De Castro Atienza co-directed and served as executive producer through Svemirko Film Productions. Her first feature, Last Days at Sea (2021), premiered at the Berlinale and went on to screen at Visions du Réel, Hot Docs, and IDFA.
Ilja Roomans produced for Dutch outfit Docmakers, with Alemberg Ang co-producing for the Philippines’ Daluyong Studios. Cinema Delicatessen will handle distribution in the Netherlands.
The film was shot in both the Netherlands and the Philippines, sometimes simultaneously. Cinematography is by Victor Horstink and Venice De Castro Atienza, with editing by David Arthur and music by Alex Simu. The Dutch broadcaster HUMAN is involved as the television partner.
What the Directors Say
Raes described the film’s approach in a statement shared with Variety.
“We shaped this film into a bittersweet love story about a couple whose relationship is tested by global inequalities in wealth, social security and acceptance of queer people. It reveals the sacrifices migrant workers make to achieve their goals, humanizing an often invisible workforce.”
De Castro Atienza spoke about her personal connection to the subject.
“As a Filipino filmmaker who has also left my home country, I approach their story with closeness and intimacy, recognizing the collective experience of choosing between leaving to provide for loved ones and staying to share a life with them. In We Had a Plan, we witness two people try to change the configuration of the world to build a place for their love.”
Le Clef explained why Cat&Docs moved quickly to acquire the film.
“Through their personal stories, the film offers a deeply human perspective on a foreign workforce that is too often reduced to statistics, stereotypes or simply made invisible. It is also an important reminder of the very real human cost behind the systems that depend on their labor. We felt that this combination of intimacy, tenderness and social relevance made the film particularly powerful and timely.”
IDFA Screening Details and Ticketing
We Had a Plan has a running time of 96 minutes and is spoken in English, Tagalog, and Dutch. The film will screen multiple times during IDFA.
The first public screening is scheduled for Saturday, November 14, 2026, at 17:15 at Tuschinski 1, followed by a Q&A. Additional public screenings are listed for November 15 at 13:00 at Pathé City 5, November 18 at 14:15 at Rialto SILO Zaal 1, November 20 at 21:00 at Tuschinski 2, and November 22 at 12:45 at Tuschinski 1. A press and industry screening is set for November 15 at 12:45 at Pathé City 7.
Tickets are available through the IDFA website. Standard tickets are priced at €13.50, with student and CJP tickets at €8.00. Several screenings include English audio description and subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing through the Earcatch app.
Broadcast and Dutch Release
Dutch public broadcaster NPO will air the documentary in 2027, according to the NPO Doc website. Cinema Delicatessen is handling the film’s theatrical distribution in the Netherlands.
Before IDFA, the project was presented as a work in progress at NLWave, a showcase for Dutch-linked films still in production, held in Utrecht from September 30 to October 2, 2026. Producer Ilja Roomans told Business Doc Europe at the time that the film explores “a world in which one country’s largest export may be its labour force, and in which the other country increasingly treats these people as second-class citizens.”
Why the Story Connects Beyond the Philippines
The film’s central conflict is not only about immigration status or money. It is about what happens when the place you call home does not fully allow you to build the life you planned. Paul and Daniel left the Philippines to earn a living. They worked without papers in the Netherlands, a situation that left them vulnerable and invisible in the country where they spent a decade. When they returned home, they were celebrated at first, then confronted with low wages, bureaucracy, and legal limits on their relationship.
That push and pull between leaving and staying, between being welcomed and being restricted, runs through the documentary. The directors have said the film is not a policy argument but a portrait of two people trying to hold their relationship together while the systems around them shift.
The acquisition by Cat&Docs places the film in the international market at a moment when documentary distributors are looking for stories that connect migration, labour, and LGBTQ+ rights. IDFA, the world’s largest documentary festival, regularly serves as a launching point for films that move from the festival circuit to broadcasters, streamers, and cinemas in other countries.
What the Trailer Shows
The first trailer, released exclusively through Variety on October 30, 2026, offers a look at the couple’s life in both countries. It includes scenes of Paul and Daniel at work in the Netherlands, their return to the Philippines, and moments that suggest the growing distance between their expectations and their daily reality. The trailer does not use voiceover narration; it relies on the couple’s own conversations and quiet observations.
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The Team Behind the Sale
Cat&Docs is a Paris-based sales company founded and led by Catherine Le Clef. The company specialises in international distribution of documentaries and has handled titles across human rights, social issues, and arts programming. The acquisition of We Had a Plan adds a queer migration story to its slate ahead of the festival season.
The film is a co-production between the Netherlands and the Philippines, with Docmakers and Daluyong Studios as the main production companies. Svemirko Film Productions, De Castro Atienza’s company, is also involved as an executive production entity.
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