49/33
But Julie decides to remain silent
Synopsis
Julie is a star player at an elite tennis academy. When her coach comes under investigation and is suddenly removed, all the players of the club are offered to express their opinion. Belgium’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film Award; category of the 97th Academy Awards ceremony in 2025. Saw it at the Ghent Film Festival 2024.
The latter is my problem with this film
A lot of the walls show tennis training and the like, but not to the point of being annoying, even for someone (like me) who doesn’t do sports, any sports. The problems shown are modern, and we see many similar cases on television and in newspapers, from rumors, openly stated to legally proven. What we also see clearly here is that we will never know exactly what happened, how far it went, and how long it lasted, largely due to privacy concerns for both the accused and the victims. .
Is this a case of sexual harassment??
When the end credits rolled, I still didn’t know what the real problem was. The word “stop” is used very often by Jeremy (the accused coach), repeatedly emphasizing that he stopped, as soon as Julie said that she wanted him to stop. It is noteworthy that Julie reacted violently when she found out that Jeremy got the position of coach in another place (we recognize this tactic of “moving” in matters of the church and sexual violence). She also asked her newly appointed trainer if he was willing to continue working with her if Jeremy was reinstated.
I can only guess what her thoughts were
Another unresolved topic is why Julie kept silent and refused to participate in conversations organized by officials who are obliged to do “something”. Did she not want to reveal the reasons why she remained silent and did not participate in the investigation?? Or is it a mixture of guilt over the fact that she was late asking Jeremy to stay?? (Perhaps, I missed something and it was clear to everyone else watching the same film.) In general, it is interesting for tennis fans, and equally for everyone who is interested in the main thing “me too”.
the subject of this film
Mixed walls of tennis training are not dominant and do not distract from the main problems. We see Julie in many scenes and in different moods, but at the same time we manage to keep us engaged with the development of the story throughout. The rest of the young actors also coped well with their task.