Bluebird (2004)

Merel, a talented young girl, is suddenly getting bullied at school.

Director:

Mijke de Jong

Writer:

Helena van der Meulen

Stars:

Elske Rotteveel, Kees Scholten, Elsie de Brauw

3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Elske Rotteveel	...	Merel de Leeuw
Kees Scholten	...	Kasper de Leeuw
Elsie de Brauw	...	Mrs. De Leeuw
Jaap Spijkers	...	Mr. De Leeuw
Bright O'Richards	...	Charles
Bente de Vries	...	Julie
Floris Heyne	...	Peer
Carmen Otten	...	Kim
Sharai Voet	...	Cindy
Samir Veen	...	Martijn
Ramon Lieshout	...	Freek
Bodine van Zalk	...	Blond meisje 1
Avalon Verbunt	...	Blond meisje 2
Florentijn van Meeuwen	...	Laila
Eline Hoorn	...	Cecilia

Storyline

Merel is a young girl with a lot of talent. She excels at school, is good on the springboard and is careful too. Her severely handicapped brother Kasper gets a lot of attention. Merel also has talent for singing. It is no surprise that she is asked for the school musical. But maybe Merel is a bit too convinced of herself. When people perform solos, she likes to sing along loudly. This doesn't fall on good ground though. People start ignoring her and she is getting bullied. All of the sudden Merel's life isn't that easy anymore, it will be hard to keep herself together.

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Plot Keywords:

school | bullying | springboard | class | train | 

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Genres:

Drama | Music

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Details

Country:

Netherlands

Language:

Dutch English French

Release Date:

10 April 2004 (Netherlands)

Filming Locations:

Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Box Office

Budget:

€1,100,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Egmond Film & Television, Nederlandse Christelijke Radio Vereniging (NCRV), CoBo Fonds

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Features Baantjer: De Cock en de moord op het wrede lot (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Losing My Religion"
Written by Peter Buck & Michael Stipe
Performed by R.E.M.

User Reviews

Good film, one that any young teenager would enjoy

Merel, a young 12 year old girl is quite talented in a lot of activities, especially in swimming. She lives with her parents and has a handicapped younger brother. One day she suddenly starts getting bullied and teased in school by her classmates, for no particular reason. She often gets teased and sometimes even beaten up by them wherever they meet; but she keeps all those tough secrets to herself, being shy to whine about it to her parents, like any other normal kid. The movie shows various expressions of her in almost every scene -more of a sad and lonely kind of expression. She has good interest in reading English novels, and is often encouraged by a gentleman who she meets in train. Another touching part of this movie is the way she and her handicapped younger brother shares. Often taking good care of him, understanding his needs, clinging on to him -heartwarming indeed. Not many siblings in this world bond that kind of a relationship (Although it's a movie). The movie naturally is convincing in the end.

I first thought this movie was German and never knew it was Dutch until I came searching for it here in IMDb. However Elske Rotteveel acted brilliantly as 12 yr old Merel. I actually cried a bit towards the end as I too know how bad a kid of her age gets the kind of environment she goes through in school.....perhaps because we're both of the same age. The soundtrack and music too were lovely.