Raw and sensitive Serbian debut Klip awarded twice at Rotterdam Festival

She loves being filmed by a boy with his mobile phone, and challenges him with her sexy poses. But when he demands to see her breast she is taken aback a bit. Yet, not much later she will indulge in all kinds of sexual activities, while getting disappointingly little in return. Jasna, the pretty wild protagonist in coming-of-age drama Klip (Clip), is a Serbian teenage girl that could easily be pictured according to the well known clichés. Fighting with her parents, even when her father is dying, spending more time at parties then in school, careless with sex, using her mobile phone as an extension of herself.

Yes, brave debut writer-director Maja Milos shows it all, including some explicit and pretty confronting blowjob close-ups. Still, she succeeds in avoiding those clichés as well as many other pittfalls that are lurking here. Klip not only has this raw energy that takes you right into the mindset of those modern teens, but combines it with a truthfulness and sensibility that makes it all the more real. Jasna, superbly acted by debuting Isidora Simijonovic, is very good at hiding her true feelings and insecurity behind her wild and unruly attitude. Sometimes however we catch a glimpse a very different Jasna that is there as well, longing for the love and affection she finds so hard to get.

At the Rotterdam Festival, where Klip had its world premiere, this apparently freewheeling, yet very confidently directed picture of youth managed to convince two juries. The main jury of the festival found it fit for one of the three (equally valued) Hivos Tiger Awards, while Maja Milos also received the Award of the Dutch Film Critics.

Noteworthy is the fact that the other two Tiger Award winners not only were directed by women as well, but also had a young girl play a main part. The subtle, seemingly improvised and very atmospheric De jueves a domingo (Thursday till Sunday) by Chilean Dominga Sotomayor shows how a girl of about ten observes the tensions between her parents, who are on the brink of a divorce. Chinese Jidan he shitou (Egg and Stone) by Huang Ji is a sober drama about a fourteen-year-old girl that feels definitely unwanted.

The FIPRESCI prize of the international critics went to O som ao redor (Neighbouring Sounds), a self-assured debut by Kleber Mendonça Filho portraying two sides of the Brazilian Dream.

The Canadian Monsieur Lazhar by Philippe Falardeau, about an Algerian immigrant helping a class of school children to deal with a great loss, was the winner of the audience award.

Audience attendance amounted to 274,000, 14% less compared to last year.

More about the other prizes awarded at this 41st edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam can be found at the website www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com

Leo Bankersen