Bluebird

For a series of six television films, the socially committed director Mijke de Jong made a film about bullying. With its observing camera, the film follows Merel, a 12-year-old girl who suddenly becomes a victim of bullying at school from one day to the next. Not because she is shy, dumb or ugly – Merel does well in the classroom and the gym – but because she happens to become the butt of a power game. At first, the bullying is carried out on the q.t., but later it becomes more frequent, open and above-all violent. At home, she doesn’t let on about it, neither to her parents nor to her adopted handicapped brother, with whom she spends a lot of her time. As the bullying increases, Merel loses her childlike innocence and becomes hardened. Even her little brother suffers.