European Children's
Film Association
Association Européenne du Cinéma
pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse
“There is no place to call home,” says Binti, the main character in Frederike Migom’s feature film debut. Certainly not in the squat, from which they have to flee for the police, and not in Belgium, where they have been living for years without a residence permit. Even though on her YouTube vlog Binti has plenty of followers, officially – on paper – she doesn’t even exist.
Nienke Korthof and Willem Baptist are the driving force behind Dutch production company Tangerine Tree, experts in the field of youth documentaries. On the occasion of receiving the ECFA Doc Award 2019 in Berlin for LENNO & THE ANGELFISH, Baptist, on stage, described their company as “hardcore children’s documentary producer”.
On the occasion of the JEF festival, a remarkable LOS BANDO delegation was welcomed in Antwerp. Arild Tryggestad is screenwriter and editor, but most attention went to actress Tiril Marie Høistad Berger. In the role of little cellist Thilda, she was one of last year’s most intriguing film characters. Together they talk about their love for road movies, cellos and good rock music.
One of the most interesting films at the Berlinale 2019 was the feature debut of Tashi Gyeltshen, a writer, journalist and self-taught filmmaker from Bhutan. His THE RED PHALLUS tells about the 16 year old Sangay, struggling her way through a male dominated, patriarchal world.
In the late sixties and early seventies, East German, Czechoslovakian and Yugoslavian directors started making children’s films in an outspoken political context, subtly working within the system that at the same time they were questioning. Within the communist bloc, Enver Hoxha’s Albania was an isolated, self-sustaining entity. Even there, behind the country’s guarded frontiers, filmmakers were working on an oeuvre that was impactful for an entire generation. Specifically one artist made a series of young audience films that were as poetic as they were subversive.
One day when scriptwriter Jonathan Sjöberg walked into a school, he saw a drawing on the wall showing a tree, a family, a monkey and a quote saying: “When I die, I want to become a monkey.” Back home he immediately wrote the first draft of a script.
While her parents are caught up in a divorce, the introverted Bo moves with her mother to an Amsterdam suburb. A girl next door introduces her to a kickboxing club and Bo turns out to be a natural talent. But Bo must learn to control herself, because you should only fight when you’re in the ring.
For FIGHT GIRL, it seems like director Johan Timmers knew exactly how he wanted to tell this story. With a lot of passion and inspiration, but also with a lot of anger. FIGHT GIRL shows anger in all forms and variations, among young people and adults, because everyone is angry in their own way.
MATTI AND SAMI AND THE THREE BIGGEST MISTAKES IN THE UNIVERSE starts with a flashback: a bunch of people stuck at a lakeside. We have no clue how they ended up here in the middle of nowhere… until we’re introduced to a family with two sons – Matti & Sami – and plenty of problems. Mum can’t hold things together anymore, while dad is longing for his native country Finland. Matti decided it’s about time to give luck a little push: how about a winning lottery ticket that grants you a house in Finland? But the dream ends where the lie begins…