Catching a Bluebird
Harmonious is my state of being every time I watch a piece of extraordinary cinema, the kind that makes you feel alive and grateful for the gift of imagination.
Recently, I saw a gem of a Dutch film, Bluebird. It is a made-for-TV production, directed by Mijke de Jong, which won a Glass Bear at Berlin Film Festival and a Grand Prix de Montréal at Montréal International Children's Film Festival.
It’s about a 13-year old girl becoming a collective target of classroom bullies. Her crime? She’s an overachiever. Also, her relationship with her handicapped brother is beautifully captured.
Set in the port city of Rotterdam, Netherlands, Bluebird covers the daily ups and downs of the soft-spoken Merel de Leeuw (a gifted actress by the name of Elske Rotteveel). She loves music, swimming, skateboarding, reading (especially Dahl’s Matilda and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina) to herself and her disabled kid brother Kasper and watching the Ching Chong Boat, as they call it, sail into the sea.
An exceptional student and model daughter, Merel is a picture of quiet resilience but profound loneliness.
Her brilliance at everything isolates her from the ordinary kids, who taunt, tease and generally make life hell for her at school. Fiercely shy, she doesn’t complain. Although, there is a brooding rebel within that surfaces, every now and then, in the form of gothic-style make-up and piercing.
De Jong’s tenderly narrated coming-of-age story is rendered in its lead protagonist’s awe-inspiring performance.
There are quite a few occasional pauses, as if the director, on purpose, left a few things unsaid to mirror a teenager's arbitrary frame of mind.
Bluebird is so sensitive and real, it is impossible to escape untouched.
Besides Bluebird, I have been at the receiving end of some lovely gifts. Got a new computer chair, it’s black, super sexy and very, very comfy.
Also this, my first ever Lladro:
I am good. Hopefully, so are you.
Recently, I saw a gem of a Dutch film, Bluebird. It is a made-for-TV production, directed by Mijke de Jong, which won a Glass Bear at Berlin Film Festival and a Grand Prix de Montréal at Montréal International Children's Film Festival.
It’s about a 13-year old girl becoming a collective target of classroom bullies. Her crime? She’s an overachiever. Also, her relationship with her handicapped brother is beautifully captured.
Set in the port city of Rotterdam, Netherlands, Bluebird covers the daily ups and downs of the soft-spoken Merel de Leeuw (a gifted actress by the name of Elske Rotteveel). She loves music, swimming, skateboarding, reading (especially Dahl’s Matilda and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina) to herself and her disabled kid brother Kasper and watching the Ching Chong Boat, as they call it, sail into the sea.
An exceptional student and model daughter, Merel is a picture of quiet resilience but profound loneliness.
Her brilliance at everything isolates her from the ordinary kids, who taunt, tease and generally make life hell for her at school. Fiercely shy, she doesn’t complain. Although, there is a brooding rebel within that surfaces, every now and then, in the form of gothic-style make-up and piercing.
De Jong’s tenderly narrated coming-of-age story is rendered in its lead protagonist’s awe-inspiring performance.
There are quite a few occasional pauses, as if the director, on purpose, left a few things unsaid to mirror a teenager's arbitrary frame of mind.
Bluebird is so sensitive and real, it is impossible to escape untouched.
Besides Bluebird, I have been at the receiving end of some lovely gifts. Got a new computer chair, it’s black, super sexy and very, very comfy.
Also this, my first ever Lladro:
I am good. Hopefully, so are you.