European Children's
Film Association
Association Européenne du Cinéma
pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse
As a promising tennis talent, Julie’s life is all about the sport. But when her coach is suddenly suspended and an investigation is launched, Julie remains silent. While her parents and her club beg for clarity, she demands time and space to deal with the situation at her own pace and on her own terms. In JULIE KEEPS QUIET, silence can sound louder than the biggest bang.
RUPTURE is not only the name of a documentary, but also of a project with great social impact in one of Brussels’ impoverished neighbourhoods. For over 30 years, a local youth centre has been taking local youngsters on a demanding trek through the Pyrenees. The fatigue and the overwhelming mountain scenery force them to reflect on their lives. Even with a camera pointed at them. Last year, documentary filmmakers Younes Haidar and Zohra Benhammou joined them on their trek.
It took a while for the film to find its way from Indonesia to the European festivals. The road was not only long geographically, but also formally – TEGAR tells a story in a cinematographic way that Western eyes and ears are not used to. The film’s genesis story was shaped by filmmakers for whom inclusion is not an empty concept. In conversations with filmmaker Anggi Frisca and her partner / producer / medical doctor Chandra Sembiring, social impact stories far outweigh cinematic details.
Ben Pipetka is a witty teenager, facing the hardships of adolescence with humour and optimism. He plays in a band with his best friend, and his passion is in cooking and eating. However, Benʼs obesity is becoming problematic, and a bunch of classmates find him a perfect bullying victim. More and more, Ben doubts himself, especially when he falls in love with beautiful Klara. Wanting to please her, Ben starts a diet. But when Klara rejects his amorous efforts, he falls into an emotional hole of apathy and gluttony. How can Ben find the courage to accept himself the way he is, even with his physical imperfections?
Walking with guests at the Filem’On festival, I hear them talking about the teenage boy who walks with us. How charming and thoughtful he is, and so nice to his mother. None of them recognise in him the little boy who, in the Norwegian documentary TODD & SUPER-STELLA, directed by his mother Mari Monrad Vistven, is so unutterably happy because he is going to get a cat. The film follows Todd and his sister Stella for five years. Stella hates things she can’t do. It doesn’t help that big brother Todd can do everything. Todd runs the slowest of the boys in his class, so he loves winning against Stella.
Kéria lives with her father on the edge of the jungle in Borneo when her cousin Selaï temporarily moves in with them. When Kéria finds a baby orangutan, they want to nurse it together to release it into the jungle later. But the jungle is threatened by big logging companies. Director Claude Barras comes up with another stop-motion gem that should get everyone committed to nature conservation… and to cute orangutans. ‘The earth does not belong to us; we get it on loan from our children.’
Robin and her friends, “The Hoods”, are always fighting with their rival gang for a piece of woodland at the end of the street. In the imagination of 11-year-old Robin, the wooden sheds there are transformed into a medieval village, where children fight epic battles on horses, armed with swords and bows, instead of on bicycles and with sticks. Until a shady property developer shows up, who wants to raze the forest to the ground and promises the residents a stylish building complex.
“My father shook hands with his sons”Usually, life is exuberantly celebrated in Ineke Houtman’s films (MADELIEF, POLLEKE). But in THE BOOK OF EVERYTHING that seems a difficult challenge, with a father who understands every sign of joy and cheerfulness as an act of rebellion against God’s omnipotence. Religion serves to keep people in line, harshly if necessary. That applies to Thomas, whose imaginative mind does not necessarily always drift towards God. And for his mother, whose small bursts of independence are punished with physical force. In the name of faith.