Skip to main content
Julie Keeps Quiet film image; woman in action swinging something in one hand

Julie Keeps Quiet

Julie zwijgt

Panorama

This event has passed

When her coach falls under investigation following the suicide of a former trainee, Julie (Tessa Van den Broeck), a young tennis ace, is thrown into turmoil. In addition to juggling the pressures of school, adjusting to a new coach, and training for the Belgian Tennis Federation’s upcoming trials, she finds herself under acute pressure to speak out. Her reluctance to do so distances her from family and friends, resulting in a solitary struggle that she alone can resolve.

Directed with unerring precision by Belgian filmmaker Leonardo Van Dijl, this is a tense, topical psychological drama where every gesture and movement, every silence and absence, is charged with import. Featuring claustrophobic shallow-focus compositions, darkly lit interiors, and a foreboding soundscape, and anchored by a steely performance from newcomer Van den Broeck, this is a provocative film about the cultures of abuse within the sports world, and the toll it takes on those caught within it.

The movie’s silence is so loaded with the anxiety, obstinance, inchoate anger and desire for anonymity of the traumatized teenage sportswoman that the constant thwack of her racquet hitting the ball cuts through the tension like violent shocks.

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

 

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Tessa Van den Broeck, Grace Biot, Alyssa Lorette, Ruth Becquart, Koen De Bouw, Pierre Gervais

Credits
Country of Origin

Belgium/Sweden

Year

2024

Language

In Dutch and French with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+

At International Village

19+

At Fifth Avenue

100 min
Drama
De Wereldvrede

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Producer

Gilles De Schryver, Gilles Coulier, Wouter Sap, Roxanne Sarkozi

Screenwriter

Leonardo van Dijl, Ruth Becquart

Cinematography

Nicolas Karakatsanis

Editor

Bert Jacobs

Original Music

Caroline Shaw

Art Director

Julien Denis

Leonardo van Dijl headshot; Julie Keeps Quiet director

Leonardo van Dijl

Leonardo van Dijl is a writer and director based in Belgium. His latest short film Stephanie (2020) was selected for the official competition of Cannes, San Sebastian, and TIFF as well as over 150 other film festivals where it received various national and international awards. Leonardo’s feature debut Julie Keeps Quiet, a co-production between De Wereldvrede, Les Films du Fleuve, Hobab, and Film i Väst, had its world premiere in May 2024 at the prestigious Critics’ Week of the Cannes Film Festival.

Photo by Nicolas Karakatsanis

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Love

Dir. Dag Johan Haugerud
119 min

This warm, thoughtful piece offers shrewd comic observations on modern dating as it trains a quizzical eye on the trysts of a female doctor, Marianne (Andrea Bræin Hovig), and her colleague, a gay male nurse, Tor (Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen).

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

No Bears

Dir. Jafar Panahi
106 min

Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi plays himself in this ingenious meta-fiction about the making of a film, and the unmaking of love story.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Sex

Dir. Dag Johan Haugerud
125 min

Two chimney sweeps living in heterosexual marriages find their views on sexuality and gender challenged by a series of unexpected events. In a set of sharply scripted conversations, both men confront heretofore unexplored aspects of their identity.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

3 Faces

Dir. Jafar Panahi
100 min

Iranian filmmaker Panahi and actress Behnaz Jafari, both playing themselves, receive a video in which a distraught teenaged girl, whose acting dreams have been quashed appears to kill herself. Panahi and Jafari decide to investigate...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Dreams

Dir. Dag Johan Haugerud
110 min

The third installment in the Sex/Dreams/Love trilogy is another rich, absorbing tale. 17-year-old Johanne writes a confessional about her flirtation with a (female) teacher. But the writing is too good to stay private...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Transit
Transit film image; woman leaning her head against a man's back

Transit

Dir. Christian Petzold
101 min

Trust the director of Phoenix and Barbara to re-imagine a WWII romantic intrigue into something unsettlingly contemporary. With occupying forces closing in, a German refugee (Franz Rogowski) assumes a dead writer's identity and flees to Marseille.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre