We Had a Plan

Paul and Dan worked seven days a week as undocumented cleaners in the Netherlands. After ten years, the couple returns to the Philippines to continue building a future together. Their triumphant homecoming—as men who have made good—soon gives way to the sobering reality of everyday life.

After ten years away, Dan returns to his job as a nurse, working twelve-hour shifts for low pay. Paul has a hard time setting up his construction business, and their savings begin to run out. They face a difficult choice. Dan’s profession offers them a chance to return legally to the Netherlands, but that path is also long and strewn with bureaucratic and emotional obstacles. Is their love strong enough to withstand that?

The journey taken by the emotional Paul and the reserved Dan toward their shared dream of just living “a simple life” touches on themes ranging from migration to LGBTQ+ acceptance, poverty, invisible labor, and elder care. But above all, as they themselves emphasize, it is a love story.