Leonardo van Dijl

Julie zwijgt (Julie Keeps Quiet)

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Director Leonardo van Dijl Composer Caroline Shaw Cast Tessa Van den Broeck, Koen De Bouw, Ruth Becquart, Tijmen Govaerts

New Voices Belgian Cinema Today Explore Zone

4.37/5

Edition 2024

Gala & Specials

97' - 2024 - Drama - Format: DCP - Dialogue: Dutch, French

Leonardo van Dijl's feature debut about a tennis prodigy refusing to speak up amidst abuse allegations directed at her coach sees its protagonist at a breaking point in her career. Economically told and paired with Karakatsanis' muted photography, this tense portrait of an ambitious teenager is a therapeutic exploration of a victim's silence.

A future top tennis player, Julie - the local academy's star - easily breaks through her opponents' serve, but she refuses to do the same with her silence when her coach is suspended for alleged abuse. For Julie, silence doesn't mean weakness, it's a choice to chart a path forward at her own pace and on her own terms. As controlled as his protagonist's forehand, Leonardo van Dijl constructs his debut film as a patient character study that shares nothing with Guadagnino's Challengers except some tennis balls. Scene by scene, Julie Keeps Quiet creeps closer to its restrained smash, making clever use of Nicolas Karakatsanis' 35mm cinematography and Caroline Shaw's angelic music to tension emotions like a perfect racket. Japanese tennis player and activist Naomi Osaka has taken on an executive producer credit, and it's easy to see why. An impressive first serve by van Dijl.