Keeper

15-year-old Maxime is a promising goalkeeper who is just starting to attract serious attention from football scouts when he hears that his girlfriend Mélanie is pregnant. Mélanie’s mother orders her daughter to get an abortion, because as a teenage mother she personally experienced how tough young parenthood can be. Maxime, on the contrary, tries to persuade Mélanie to keep their child. Keeper primarily follows the perspective of Maxime, who doesn’t have any rights whatsoever and feels totally powerless about what is happening. The realistic style of cameraman Denis Jutzeler, who has worked extensively with Alain Tanner, dovetails perfectly with Senez’s authenticity-driven style of directing; during rehearsals he didn’t give his actors a script, but let them do a lot of improvising instead.
In his feature film debut Senez doesn’t only show the adult worries, but also the fragility and light-footedness of adolescence. The result is a refreshingly honest impression that doesn’t force any position onto the viewer.

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