Sing Song
Directed by: Mischa Kamp
Summary: This film is an upbeat musical about a 16-year-old Dutch girl named Jasmine (Georgiefa Boomdijk) who embarks on a secret mission to reconnect with her past. Jasmine’s father has always refused to discuss her long-lost mother in Suriname and his own Suriname roots, so when Jasmine and her friend Stijn (Floris Bosma) are invited to a singing competition in the South American country, she tells her father she’s going to study in Berlin and takes off. While in Suriname, she jeopardizes her chances at winning the contest and her friendship with Stijn to carry out her secret plan to find her mother.
My take: This is tied for my favorite film of the festival. It is such a delight in every way. For starters, it is pleasantly the polar opposite of the typical independent film – instead of dark and dreary it is sunny and airy. The lead actress is so earnest and vibrant you feel every trial and tribulation of Jasmine’s journey on a personal level. The plot keeps you guessing as to what Jasmine is going to learn at each step, and the big twist at the end is set up in a way that you probably could have seen it coming but it was never obvious enough that you definitively should have, so it makes for a nice surprise.
The songs are beautifully written and each one is catchier than the last. Some of the musical numbers can be chaotic, simply because since the film is mostly not in English unless you know Dutch and Surinamese, you are reading the lyrics while listening to the vocals, while watching the choreography. But if you can manage the multitasking, you’ll be humming and tapping along to every second. The spacing of the songs is also nice because there’s the perfect tune for each part of Jasmine’s adventure without relying entirely on music for the narrative, which might overwhelm a viewer.
Sing Song has everything – romance, mystery, family drama, themes of cultural identity and multicultural unity. There’s melancholy inner turmoil mixed with notions of pride, strength, determination and the purity of dreaming. It’s a film of unadulterated hope, love and joy.
Rating: 5
Follow and learn more about the film at: https://www.submarine.nl/project/sing-song/
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