Julie Keeps Quiet (Julie zwijgt)

There are a fair few issues bubbling away in Julie Keeps Quiet. It’s a disturbing film about Julie (Tessa van den Broeck) a very talented tennis player whose coach Jeremy (Lauron Caron) is suspended over serious allegations.

To add weight to the issue is the suicide of another talented tennis player whom Jeremy was coaching. The club launch a full-blown investigation asking anyone who had any sort of dealings with Jeremy to come forward.

Tricky for Julie who still has some loyalty towards Jeremy to the extent that he is still in touch with her by mobile and slatting her new coach Backie (Pierre Gervais). This manipulation results in Julie initially being wary of Backie, for professional reasons, though they establish a working relationship.

Debut feature director Leonardo Van Dijl, co-written with Ruth Becquart, takes a distanced approach to telling the story and allows it to develop organically and unsettlingly.

Julie while at the core of the film is not a presented as a loner being a popular student at school and player at the club. But there’s a palpable fragility about her brilliantly brought out by newcomer Van den Broeck. It’s a complex role of guilt, loyalty, ambition, fear, and manipulation all colliding in Julie’s mind.

Julie Keep Quiet doesn’t go down the evil Uncle Ernie route. It’s subtly done via calls between Julie and Jeremy, and the latter’s video statement on the allegations. They go some way towards revealing the toxicity and manipulation at play here and is much more effective and psychologically disturbing for that.

Almost as a background matter is that of the pressure applied to talented young people to perform at ever increasing heights. The achievement seemingly at the expense of their welfare. The film points to a system that is geared towards high achievement, possibly great success and prepared to tolerate abuse of position and power along the way.

Julie Keeps Quiet is out now in UK cinemas.