I’m Not A Problem Child, I’m A Challenge (2016)

Directed by: Rolf Orthel | 90 minutes | documentary

It makes you silent, of the beautiful piano playing of Babs, a girl who firmly claimed she couldn’t play, but was persuaded by fellow sufferer EJ. But Daniel’s beautiful, deeply personal rap, about a girl who is no longer there, also touches the viewer’s soul. The image of Efke, who has damaged himself several times with a knife and swallowed batteries, arouses both amazement and pity. The despair can be read on Wieke’s face, who talks about how her mother looked on and continued to sip her wine while her daughter was being beaten. “If I have to stay here any longer, I’ll go crazy!” she urges the juvenile judge. It is immediately clear that the penetrating and moving documentary ‘I am not a problem child, I am a challenge’ (2016) manages to touch the viewer’s heart. The experienced filmmaker Rolf Orthel worked with his camera crew for a year and a half at Transferium Youth Care in Heerhugowaard and followed the young people during their treatment. The young protagonists deserve credit for their courage to participate in this project, and for their openness.

The young people who are admitted to Transferium Youth Care are there because the judge thinks that they cannot participate in society properly. The young people themselves often think very differently about this; they think they are okay and do not need any help, while the alarm bells are going off among the adults in their environment. The young people in this documentary come under a special form of youth care, namely JeugdzorgPlus. They are not waiting for treatment at all. Getting in touch with them is not easy. Sometimes they react aggressively or angrily when a Transferium employee tries to start a conversation with them. Others turn in on themselves. It is not easy for the supervisors to deal with this. In ‘I am not a problem child, I am a challenge’ it can be seen that the young people who end up at JeugdzorgPlus have often already experienced a lot in their young lives. They end up in a place where you can’t just enter, but you certainly don’t just leave. In an environment that is largely cut off from the outside world, the young people work on themselves under supervision, with the intention of returning to normal life as quickly as possible. And that is far from easy.

Rolf Orthel (80) has been directing and producing films for over fifty years and learned the tricks of the trade from none other than Bert Haanstra. His grandson gave him the idea to make a documentary about young people in a closed institution. “By talking to countless people – from social workers, parents and juvenile judges to the young people themselves – I have slowly been able to get a taste of what really goes on in such an institution”, the director said before a special preview of the film, in which the young protagonists were also present. “We recorded more than two hundred hours of film, with the focus mainly on: who are these young people?” The closed institution Transferium Youth Care is not a prison, but the teenagers who are here cannot leave. Every night the door of their room is locked. What they have behind them is not wrong. Crime, drugs, abuse, attempted suicide. Orthel especially wanted to emphasize that they are ordinary children – “yes, I keep saying children” – with dreams, wishes, ambitions and talents. “I wanted to watch and listen to these children, and show them how alive and how real they are,” said the emotional Orthel. Transferium Youth Care was happy to participate in the film, because there are many prejudices and misconceptions about youth care in the Netherlands. With the permission of the young people and their parents/guardians, Orthel was given complete freedom to shoot his film.

‘I’m not a problem child, I’m a challenge’ shows observations of their daily activities, alongside emotional therapy conversations and confidential confessions. Tough guys like Daniel turn out to be able to write particularly sensitive texts. The combative Wieke – according to the juvenile court ‘a damaged girl, but doing well’ – defends herself against her mother. Erik Jan and Babs show their great musical talent. And Mathijs, struggling with his homosexuality, cautiously approaches his mother. The youngsters constantly switch from pleasure to anger and vulnerability. They have tough attitudes, but fragile self-images. They move forward by trial and error. Always with the goal in mind to be outside again as soon as possible. Because, as the juvenile judge aptly says in the film: ‘It is the privilege of the youth to be in a hurry’. They hope every day is the beginning of the rest of their lives. In any case, with this film there will be more understanding for their situation and that is exactly the goal that both Orthel and Transferium Youth Care had in mind.