43/43
Julie is a star player at an elite tennis academy. When her coach is under investigation and suddenly suspended, all the players at the club are encouraged to speak out. However, Julie decides to remain silent. Belgium’s official submission for the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category of the 97th Academy Awards in 2025. One name emerges from the film’s secrets: Naomi Osaka as executive producer. The tennis player has made no secret of the mental stress caused by playing at the highest level. This film is exactly that. It follows Julie, a promising teenage tennis player, as she deals with the aftermath of a scandal at her tennis club. She is not directly involved in the events, but she cannot avoid them either. Although the people around her encourage her to “talk about it”, she refuses and insists that she has nothing to say. Julie seems to be a rather reserved girl, although she is popular with her friends. It’s not easy for the viewer to identify with a protagonist who doesn’t show her feelings. The result is that not much happens in the film. We see Julie working out, talking to her friends and parents, walking her dog, and going to school. On the surface, her life is not very eventful. It’s up to the viewer to discover what’s going on beneath the surface. We get hints and see her struggling, as do the people around her. But everything is left unsaid, as the film’s title clearly indicates. The audience around me at the Ghent Film Festival seemed disappointed but not dismissive. “I was hoping something would happen at the end,” the girl on my right remarked. “What exactly was it?” a woman on my left remarked. I think the director intentionally left the answer to that question open. He didn’t spell it out, but left it up to us to discover. If it makes sense, I think that young people should be prepared with extreme caution for a highly competitive sports environment. I know, that doesn’t sound spectacular, and it probably won’t encourage large crowds to see this movie. But some filmmakers prefer quiet “slice of life” films to high-octane spectacles. Just ask the Dardenne brothers. They also produced this film.