The honest White Berry sometimes opts for some clumsy means to put you in the position of the main character ★★★☆☆

When 17-year-old Grace dances, who she wants to be personally and physically collide. At least, as long as she can do that in front of the mirror in the bedroom. Outside, it’s mostly a matter of survival: while Grace stands out everywhere, no one sees her the way she wants to be seen.

Sia Hermanides’ heroine White Berry struggles with the way her environment reacts to her albinism. As a child, Grace (Latifa Mwazi) was chased by albino hunters. She fled to the Netherlands with her mother (Diane Kagisye) and brother. Growing up in South Rotterdam, she still feels cursed by her pigment-free skin: she is too African to blend in with the white community, too white to just be accepted by the black community. When she’s not being booed or ignored, she has to explain why she is the way she is. ‘I’ve got the colours, she’s got the brains’, brother Samuel (Emmanuel Ohene Boafo) jokes to someone who doesn’t understand that they are family.

Director Sia Hermanides previously made the series soccer girls (2016) and the medium-length television movie afua (2019). With her feature film debut, she aptly conveys Grace’s isolation. Often Grace is literally on the edge of a group conversation in which she does not participate, or she is confined in her own solitary shot, separate from the others. In the rare moments when Grace can really be who she wants to be, she gets more room to move: then the aspect ratio changes from 1.85:1 to 2.35:1.

Hermanides and cameraman Aziz Al-Dilaimi make good use of urban Rotterdam locations, with a lot of emphasis on bright colors that sometimes emphasize Grace’s white skin. Color and perception are always recurring motifs in White Berry: Take for example Grace’s eye condition, which causes her to see everything more or less double. As if she herself has acquired a distorted perception of the world and her own identity due to the constant incomprehension from the outside.

White Berry was written in collaboration with lead actress Latifa Mwazi. Mwazi’s personal experiences and passion for dance were a direct source of inspiration for the script. She grants Grace vulnerability and shame, but also a convincing pride and zest for life. When Grace meets singer Kya (Joyeuse Musabimana) and her dancing friends, Mwazi makes it plausible that Grace is taking increasingly radical steps to fit in. Graduation year or not.

It’s a pity that White Berry gradually chooses rather clumsy means to put you in Grace’s position, or to clarify that she cannot shake off the traumas of her early childhood. A little less drama and effect, and the impact of this honest, compelling coming-of-age drama would have been even greater.