It’s a law when you make a movie with a child in the lead: without the right child, you don’t have a movie. And so is the coming-of-age portrait shabu unimaginable without the 14-year-old boy Sharonio, one of the residents of the Peperklip, a residential fortress in South Rotterdam from the eighties. A child in the body of a man, the large body dressed in tight and colorful shirts that look good on him. See the twinkle in his eye or his irrepressible urge to drum rhythmically on the railing of the gallery: Shabu (Sharonio) stands out from the rest of the apartment dwellers.
He dreams big: to become rich in music. But meanwhile, throws in his own glasses. Shabu secretly took his grandmother’s car and wrecked it. During the family meeting with which Shamira Raphaëla’s 75-minute film opens, his punishment is determined: earn money all summer long, sell ice cream or fill shelves in the neighborhood supermarket to pay off his debt. Meanwhile, his grandmother, who left for Suriname, refuses all contact with her grandson, which really bothers the nonchalant Shabu – her darling after all.
shabu, previously selected for a series of appealing festivals, including IDFA, IFFR and Berlin, is a documentary in the guise of a feature film. Everything is more or less real, but the camera moves as if we were watching a movie, supported by all kinds of musical effects. The people in the picture are themselves, but pretend that there is no film crew present. With this wondrous, sometimes a bit artificial, set-up, Raphaëla violates the usual documentary agreement with the viewer. But shabu it gives us something extra lively and infectious: we see the 14-year-old as the star of his own life. The intimacy also comes across well: the chats with Shabu’s father, who calmly offers his son some handles for his adolescent troubles: believing in yourself, working to achieve something. And, to crown the film, the inevitable and touching reunion with grandma.
shabu resembles a fairy tale: the happy ending is constantly in the air, in this sweet summer city idyll. But the conversations between Shabu and his best friend Jahnoa also reflect the sometimes grim reality of life in the Peperklip neighbourhood: here you can just find a thick pool of blood in the elevator in the apartment building.
Perhaps, you think after the festive conclusion of her film, Raphaëla will be able to point the camera at Shabu/Sharonio in a few years’ time. How did you go on with this endearing teenager? Could he make his dreams come true?
shabu
Documentary
Directed by Shamira Raphaela
With Sharonio, Jahnoa.
75 min. In 24 halls.