{"id":26959,"date":"2013-07-14T23:45:19","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T06:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=26959"},"modified":"2013-07-20T23:37:34","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T06:37:34","slug":"tel-aviv-international-childrens-film-festival-2013-fidgety-bram-nono","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=26959","title":{"rendered":"Tel Aviv International Children’s Film Festival 2013: Fidgety Bram & Nono"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bram has discovered the secret of perpetual motion: unfortunately, it is driving his family to distraction. He\u2019s a constant whirl of energy, enthusiasm and ideas. He\u2019s also, fortunately, a pretty sweet kid, which takes the edge off the constant mishaps he gets himself into. He wants to be an inventor when he grows up: meanwhile, he makes do by seeing whether it is possible to clear autumn leaves in the front yard with a vacuum cleaner (what do you think?) and testing whether a hairdryer can rescue his Gameboy from a dunking in the toilet. He keeps a list of his favourite words in a special scrapbook, is looking forward to starting first grade: which will he learn first, he wonders, Chinese or Egyptian letters?<\/p>\n

\"Fidgety<\/a>
Fidgety Bram courtesy of Bosbros NL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Neither, as it happens. Instead, he\u2019ll learn that the wide-open world is not always as sympathetic and patient as the family unit can be. Fidgety Bram<\/em> is a short, not always sweet Dutch film about the travails of childhood and conforming. Bram\u2019s bete noir is the unsympathetic Mr Fish, his first grade teacher. Mr Fish believes in order and routine and systems and structures \u2013 none of these amongst Bram\u2019s favourite words, sadly. This unfortunately everyday story about a clash of priorities hides an unexpectedly powerful emotional punch, which props it above conventional naughty-but-nice child fare. Bram needs to find a way to stop fidgeting but still remain his irrepressible self. A lot depends upon it, like a happy family life.<\/p>\n

Nono too lives largely in an imaginary world too, but one of a somewhat different hue. After his mother\u2019s death when he was one, he was brought up largely by his father, police inspector Frierberg (\u201cthe greatest inspector in the world!\u201d). But despite Inspector Freirberg\u2019s not-too-tender ministrations to ground him in the real world, Nono\u2019s head remains stuck in the clouds and the improbable. After ruining his cousin\u2019s Bar Mitzvah, he is dispatched to his Uncle Shmuel \u2013\u00a0 the dreaded child development expert who \u201cwears socks with his sandals!\u201d \u2013 for expert intervention. Nono\u2019s Bar Mitzvah is just around the corner. It\u2019s time, father thinks, for him to grow up and become a man.<\/p>\n

\"Nono<\/a>
Nono on the train\/Photo courtesy of Vincent Bal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This adaptation of David Grossman\u2019s The Zig Zag Kid<\/em> remains true to the original, despite relocation from Israel to Holland and France. Gaby, his father\u2019s long-suffering girlfriend, serves as an effective buffer zone between Nono\u2019s land of dreams and his father\u2019s cold harsh daylight. Still, there is the mystery of what happened to his real mother to unpick. After being bundled onto a train, he receives a secret communication that leads him to the worlds greatest burglar \u2013 and his father\u2019s greatest rival \u2013 Felix Glick \u2013 and a whirlwind adventure. The Zig Zag Kid<\/em> is a charming romp across a late-60s landscape, similarly trading on values that one doesn\u2019t often find in films for or about children nowadays \u2013 autonomy, adventure, innocence, romance and even an occasional pistol fight. Amidst all the excitement, Nono still has a mystery to solve \u2013 one much about himself as it is about the world around him.<\/p>\n

Fidgety Bram<\/em> (Brammetje Baas) (2012, 83 mins, Dutch with English subtitles)
\nDirected by Anna van der Heide, Written by Tamara Bos
\nStarring Coen van Overdam, Katja Herbers, Tjebbo Gerritsma, Rene Groothof<\/p>\n

Nono, the Zigzag Kid<\/em> (2012, 95 mins, Dutch with English subtitles)
\nDirected by Vincent Bal, Written by David Grossman (novel), Vincent Bal and Jon Gilbert
\nStarring Thomas Simon, Fedja van Huet, Jessica Zeylmaker, Burghart Klaussner and Isabella Rossellini<\/p>\n

The Tel Aviv International Children’s Film Festival will open on Thursday, July 18,2013, at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. The full program may be viewed online (mostly in Hebrew), click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bram has discovered the secret of perpetual motion: unfortunately, it is driving his family to distraction. He\u2019s a constant whirl of energy, enthusiasm and ideas. He\u2019s also, fortunately, a pretty sweet kid, which takes the edge off the constant mishaps he gets himself into. He wants to be an inventor when he grows up: meanwhile, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}