Elm! (2010)

Directed by: – | 81 minutes | family | Actors: Huub Stapel, Kenadie Jourdin-Bromley, Diederik Ebbinge, Joke Tjalsma, Madelief Vermeulen, Ties Dekker

With the imaginative children’s book ‘Deesje’, writer Joke van Leeuwen (1952) broke through with the general public in the mid-eighties. Many successful books – for young and old – would follow. Van Leeuwen surprises with her lively, colorful use of language and inexhaustible imagination. She often illustrates her books herself and her drawings contain just as many ingenuity as in her stories. Characters from Van Leeuwen’s oeuvre are often eccentric, sometimes even downright strange, but always charming and moving. Take the girl Bobbel in ‘The story of Bobbel who lived in a cargo bike and wanted to get rich’ (1987), or ‘Kukel’ (1998), about a dreamy boy whose fantasy world seems to come to life. Each and every one of the stories is original and full of imagination, but always with an underlying heavy theme. This is how the book ‘Eep!’ (1996) – for which she won the Woutertje Pieterse Prize, the Gouden Uil and the Jany Smelik Ibby Prize, among others – about saying goodbye. The famous children’s book about the bird girl Viegeltje has now been made into a film.

The story of ‘Elm!’ is simple but effective: one day bird watcher Warre (Huub Stapel) finds a strange creature in the field. She is a tiny girl (Kenadie Jourdin Bromley) with a face and two legs but with wings instead of arms. Warre takes the wonderful creature to the farm where he lives with his wife Tine (Joke Tjalsma). Tine is instantly hooked on the girl and they decide to take care of her as if she were their own child. The bird girl, whom they call Viegeltje after some fuss, grows quickly, although she remains very small for a human child. Her wings are getting stronger and one day she flies out the window. She has to go south, just like the other birds. Much to the chagrin of Tine and Warre, who decide to track her down. That turns out not to be so easy. Along the way they run into some memorable characters. The girl Loetje (Madelief Vermeulen), for example, who has run away from home, or a firefighter who calls himself ‘the savior’ (Diederik Ebbinge) but is actually not that heroic at all. Together they go in search of the wonderful bird girl.

To stop the production of ‘Elm!’ has been a lot to do. Director Rita Horst distanced himself from the film after producer Lemming Film shortened the film by fifteen minutes, in his own words after consultation with other parties involved such as the film fund, the distributor, the co-producer, the test audience and private investors. Horst filed a lawsuit because she felt that the tone of her film had changed significantly after the interventions. Instead of ‘a warm, layered and substantively strong film’, this would now be a film ‘where the poetry is largely cut away and the characters leave you cold’. The creative team and most of the actors rallied behind Horst, who lost the lawsuit and refused to burn her fingers on the project. She didn’t even want her name attached to the film anymore.

It’s a shame that all that quarrel between Horst and Lemming Film casts its shadow on the film, because that deserves ‘Elm!’ certainly not. It is a heartwarming film for young and old, which takes you to a wonderful world that is very similar to ours, yet very different. Surreal, just like in Joke van Leeuwen’s books, which comes to life convincingly. Cheerful and colorful, but with a touch of tragedy (the childless couple, the girl Loetje who is neglected by her father, the firefighter with his inferiority complex). Just like in life itself. While it seems that the cutting and editing has left its mark on the character development and some storylines, ‘Elm!’ barely lost in strength. Much of the magic this film carries comes from the tiny lead actress, Kenadie Jourdin Bromley. Born in 2003, the Canadian girl suffers from primordial dwarfism and measures just over seventy centimeters. It makes her fragile and endearing, but she is also very stubborn, which makes her even more fascinating. ‘Elm!’ is her film from front to back. But Stapel and especially Tjalsma – whose dialogues fortunately have remained very close to Van Leeuwen’s virtuoso language acrobatics – are also on track. In addition, cameraman Theo Bierkens has done his best to ‘Eep!’ to be a feast for the eyes.

‘Elm!’ is a wonderful addition to the already impressive list of excellent Dutch youth films. The wondrous little Kenadie definitely steals the show, but ‘Elm!’ is so much more than a showcase of this endearing girl: beautifully shot, well acted, sympathetic, warm and undeniably quirky. Joke van Leeuwen will be proud of this film that does justice to her acclaimed book. Don’t mind the negative publicity and controversy surrounding this film, because you’ll miss out on a heartwarming family film!