Fixed (2011)

Directed by: Rolf van Eijk | 50 minutes | drama, short film | Actors: Tygo Gernandt, Sigrid ten Napel, Pieter van Terheijden

Isabel (Sigrid ten Napel) has been detained for two years in ‘Vast’, by director Rolf van Eijk (script by Bastiaan Tichler). It is a severe punishment, which in reality is also imposed on underage murderers. Whatever she did, she has an excuse, a “history” that is exposed in the rest of the film. Even if Isabel herself does everything to hide herself. When she has to change in the presence of others, her shoulders are cramped and turned toward each other. When other girls on her cell block ask questions, she makes a funny face or feigns an epileptic seizure.

In part ‘Vast’ is a sketch of the ins and outs in a juvenile detention center. Sometimes Isabel is part of that, for example when she is dragged to a solitary cell, her arms spread, her legs limply sweeping the ground. The routine actions of the attendants are recorded as if they were a ritual act; as if after a fluid dance, Isabel lands softly on the concrete floor. At other times, girls make a fuss in the background, while Isabel, as always, takes the foreground. Rightly so, because the power of ‘Vast’ comes for the most part from Sigrid ten Napel. Only Tygo Gernandt, as her kickboxing trainer Mike, is here, literally and figuratively, an equal sparring partner. He knows how to channel her aggression, and aggression is the only way Isabel dares to express herself. Ten Napel turns watching Isabel for 45 minutes into a fascinating, at times fascinating experience. Rarely has hatred been so intensely concentrated on the silver screen as here, when Isabel looks her father in the eye. It’s attack and defense at the same time. (Decent Christians look like Mom and Dad, by the way. She has a pearl necklace around her frail neck, he a spencer over his shirt.)

The camera is constantly on Isabel’s heels. When at a certain moment she looks back at kickboxing trainer Mike, the camera turns curiously with her gaze. The pale blue, almost misty images also seem to represent the world as it reveals itself to Isabel. A world that acts a bit faltering here and there. Isabel’s supervisor Justine (Sanneke Bos) consists of the desk she sits at, the clothes she wears, and sentences that Justine pronounces as if she knew them beforehand. Something similar goes for more people in the film. Out of nowhere a Dione (Saskia Nijholt) appears, who chastises herself, just like Isabel. Dione passes by even more often, as a black ghost with a haircut that covers her face. It may be that this also represents Isabel’s subjective perception, but it doesn’t seem like it.

‘Vast’ is primarily a three-dimensional slide – documentary and poetic, but also static in nature. That is, the movements in the story lack tension and surprise. Because friction and conflict remain too obedient and perfunctory and metaphors are too obvious. When ‘Vast’ ends, with a big nod to ‘Les quatre cents coups’ (the blueprint film for films about cornered children), all the puzzle pieces are also neatly where you expected them to be. But Isabel, as said, makes up for everything.