Shabu (2021)

Directed by: Shamira Raphaela | 75 minutes | documentary

Sharonio Abisoina is fourteen years old, calls himself Shabu, and lives with his family in an apartment in the De Peperklip building in Rotterdam. Filmmaker Shamira Raphaëla wanted to make a film for young people his age and slightly younger. She chose Shabu as her subject, because although he lives in a ‘problem area’, the cliché that goes with it does not apply to him. Shabu comes from a loving family, where family and respect for each other come first. The teenager has biggest dreams and fine friendships. When Shabu confessed to Shamira that he had made perhaps the biggest mistake of his teenage years, it was clear that he deserved to be featured in her documentary.

Phew, and what a mistake. ‘Shabu’ begins with a hastily organized family gathering. During his grandmother’s holiday in Suriname, Shabu stole her car and drove it through Rotterdam. This joyride ended with a car written off as a total loss. How does a boy like that get it in his head? Grandma is very angry, she let us know via a video call. How does he plan to solve this? The damage is enormous: Shabu has to earn about twelve hundred euros together. There goes your summer vacation!

Shabu reacts lukewarm and resigned to the thunder sermon. It’s like it hasn’t quite hit him yet. He doesn’t really go to work to earn money really fanatically either: it’s that his mother helps him to make popsicles. You can see his reluctance as he reluctantly walks past the apartments to ask if people might want to buy an ice cream. Only later do you notice how annoying he finds it – the apple of Grandma’s eye, of course – that he disappointed her so much.

Meanwhile, we also meet Shabu’s girlfriend Stephany and best friend Jahnoa. With them in the picture, we get to see candid conversations about the life, love and future expectations – however unrealistic – of these young people. As the documentary progresses, Shabu admits that he doesn’t have much time left for both his courtship and his boyfriend. He must first put things in order with his family (“they have to become proud of me again”).

Shabu soon realizes that the ice cream sale is not going to be him; his idea of ​​’get rich quick’ fits much better with his own dream for the future: to become famous. How does he do that? By organizing a fissa nearby. Two euros entrance and he will perform with a song he wrote himself (“I am a little boy from Peperklip”). And none of that is a lie. A little boy with a big heart and big ambitions. He may look at least ten years older than he is, but he’s still far from being an adult in terms of thinking. But Shamira Raphaëla hopes with her documentary that it will all work itself out.