MissionPoo16 (2007)

Directed by: Anna van der Heide | 9 minutes | short film | Actors: Annabel van Lieshout, Saskia Temmink, Michaël van Buuren, Bella Schoneveld, Lilou Dekker

‘MissiePoo16’ is a short film that starts with smoothly edited images, photos, emoticons and cheerful images, accompanied by the opening tunes of the eighties hit “”Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”” by Cyndi Lauper. MissionPoo16 is the internet name of 14-year-old Rosan, who lives with her mother and sister in a place she doesn’t want to reveal the name of because she doesn’t want to be kidnapped or stalked (sensibly!). She’s decided to keep a video diary, and like many teens, she has her problems that she’d like to share with someone — or in this case, something.

Annabel van Lieshout is a convincing Rosan, she is endearing, she is funny, spontaneous but also scares you when she tells you what her mother’s boyfriend has done. Her mother, Lies, is “still” dating and Rosan is annoyed by that. What she finds even worse is her mother’s new boyfriend, Ernest. She can’t stand him and is horrified by his chest hair and unshaven beard. She sees him as an intruder and hates the fact that he disrupts the relationship between her and her mother. Rosan loves her mother very much, she lists her as number one among the things she loves very much. Comfort is also in the top five, which she is good at. Her best friend Kim needs a lot of comfort because she has (had) many boyfriends and therefore also heartbreak that goes with it. Her mother needs comfort because Ernest is leaving her. But who actually comforts Rosan herself? The girl turns out to be more alone than she cares to admit and that is very sad.

Although ‘Missiepoo16’ is a fictional film, it is easy to imagine that many children struggle with the same feelings of loneliness and incomprehension. ‘Missiepoo16’ is therefore a beautiful and recognizable representation of contemporary teenage culture. A strong film, which rightly won the Golden Calf for Best Short Film 2007.