Nervosa (2019)

Directed by: Thessa Meijer | 13 minutes | drama, fantasy, short film | Actors: Nora El Koussour, Merel Pauw, Sarah Janneh, Souad Keehnen el-Aidi

The fact that Thessa Meijer is a filmmaker to keep an eye on is clear from the facts. For her film ‘The Walking Fish’ (2018), she received a Gold Screen award for best short film as well as the Special Jury Prize at the Young Director Awards in Cannes. The film was also submitted as best short film in the live action short category at the Oscars in 2020. Previously she made One Night Stand ‘The Day My House Fell’ and for the tenth anniversary of Cineville she was chosen as one of three promising , ‘exciting’, names in the Netherlands to make one scene they dream of (‘Hette’, 2019). ‘Nervosa’ is her first film in the program ‘KORT!’.

Jade (Nora El Koussour, ‘Layla M’) is a young woman who lives with two other women, about her age, in a mobile home, surrounded by a hedge, with a large area of ​​grass around it. Initially she spends most of her time with Rex (Merel Pauw). It doesn’t look like a friendly relationship. Rather, it’s as if Rex is her personal trainer, letting Jade push the limits of her physical abilities and monitoring and keeping track of every morsel that disappears into Jade’s stomach. They don’t seem to really like each other. Then there’s Bo (Sarah Janneh), who goes her own way in and around the mobile home. She doesn’t seem to care much about the stiff interactions between Jade and Rex, but in the evening the three of them lie comfortably together in bed.

Thessa has the art of creating a fantasy-like situation from an ordinary everyday subject, so that you initially do not realize what is actually going on. However, the strength of ‘Nervosa’ is not only in the scenario, but also in the camera work, which is so close to the skin of the three characters that you miss the helicopter view. But that is precisely the point of this well-made short film. Afterwards – when the penny has dropped – you realize all the more how ingenious this film is.