Cloud Boy (2017)

Directed by: Meikeminne Clinckspoor | 77 minutes | family, drama | Actors: Daan Roofthooft, Ayla Gáren Audhild P. Nutti, Joakim Nils Tomas Trägårdh, Geert Van Rampelberg, Sara Sommerfeld, Mikkel Gaup

‘Cloudboy’ is about twelve-year-old Niilas, who lives somewhere in a city in Belgium with his father Gerard and leads a happy, quiet life there. They have fun doing the dishes and Niilas is having a great time with his old-fashioned audio recorder, which he uses to record all kinds of sounds, which he then listens to on his headphones. Niilas has been invited by his mother Katarina to spend this summer vacation with her and her new family in Lapland. Niilas does not listen to that at all and looks like a mountain against it. He doesn’t know his mother at all and has no need for renewed contact with her, let alone with his half brother and sister. But he has to be told by his father and running away doesn’t help.

Arriving in Lapland, Niilas behaves sullenly towards his new relatives. Even a phone call from his father cannot cheer him up, although we immediately notice that his slightly younger half-sister Sunná feels good about him and that Gerard also has a sensor for his son’s sensitivities, which allows him to deal with him in the right way. to communicate with him. Niilas has even more to choose from, because in addition to a new environment and a new family, he also encounters Lappland’s most distinctive residents, a herd of reindeer. Katarina’s new husband, also the father of Sunná and Niilas’ younger half-brother Pontus, is a reindeer herder and the children are also involved in the profession. When they laugh at Niilas’ half-hearted attempt to throw a lasso, that’s enough and Niilas retaliates, in a way that has rather far-reaching consequences.

The rest of ‘Cloudboy”s story is easy to predict, but that’s because of the conventions of the genre. After all, you don’t like to watch a family film without a happy ending and without the necessary life lessons with your impressionable offspring. Fortunately, ‘Cloudboy’ also has plenty to offer the serious film buff. The images of breathtaking Lapland alone are unparalleled. There are countless impressive shots of reindeer and at times the scenes seem almost documentary. Enough research has gone into it and it definitely pays off. But the young actors are also an advantage. The protagonist, Daan Roofthooft, knows how to win over the viewer with ease, no matter how sullen he is and whatever miserable things he does. After all, it’s not nothing, just a whole summer holiday miles from home, with people you don’t know and for whom you don’t feel anything, in an environment that is at odds with everything you are used to.

‘Cloudboy’ is a warm, beautifully shot family film, with special characters and an unusual set. Despite that, the film has enough leads for the target group to completely lose themselves in this adventure. Meikeminne Clinckspoor first made the beautiful short film ‘Ki’, in the context of Nu or Nooit (2015) and with ‘Cloudboy’ proves that she is definitely a name to keep an eye on. Highly recommended!