_{Kauwboy by Boudewijn Koole}

Kauwboy, due to premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Generation K Plus programme aimed at younger audiences, tackles some tough issues, ranging from death to domestic violence. But ultimately the tale is an uplifting one. “The initial idea grew out of a childhood memory of a crow that came to my window for three months one spring,” recounts Koole. “I read later that these birds can become very attached to humans if they are separated from their parents at an early age.” The title of the film translates quite literally as Jackdaw Boy.

“I co-wrote the script with Jolein Laarman. We really found a great match in each other. She and editor Gys Zevenbergen, who is my film-making soul-mate, were key to the creative development of the film,” he continues.

The picture’s young protagonist Jojo is coping with a difficult home life – his mother is inexplicably absent and his father suffers from violent mood swings. “I have always been interested in the father-son relationship,” says Koole. “I had a complicated relationship with my own father… I also find it interesting how children can sometimes be cleverer, both socially and emotionally, than their parents.”

Producer Jan van der Zanden of Amsterdam-based Waterland Film, boarded the project at development stage together with NTR’s Sandra Beerends, having been impressed by Koole’s previous 50-minute film Maite was here, about a young girl who decides to stop her cancer treatment and face death.

“I thought his idea was very intriguing and new. The story of this young boy living with an aggressive father is rather tough – it was not an easy subject,” says Van der Zanden.

“The result is very powerful… I have watched the film a number of times now and I still spend most of the final part in tears,” continues the producer, who raised the €1.0 million budget through the Netherlands Film Fund’s Cinema Junior initiative - aimed at children’s features - Public Broadcaster NTR, Mediafund, CoBO and distributor BFD.

Koole says he looked at hundreds of potential boys before discovering first-time actor, 10-year-old Rick Lens. “I must have seen between 200 to 300 children. I was looking for a child who was a bit edgy, rough,” recounts Koole, who was sent Lens’ screen test as the shooting date was drawing close. “What immediately struck me about Rick was the way he sat back on his chair and looked into the camera in a sort of cool way as if to say, ‘why should I get involved in this’ and then by chance in the background I heard the cry of jackdaw… it was a strange coincidence.”

“He was far and away the strongest candidate but he was not easy to work with either. He has got a really short attention span and is rather hyper. He could focus for an hour or two and then we had have to let him go and play soccer or something,” adds Koole. “But he gave us such an amazing performance.”

The “character” of the jackdaw was recreated on screen using six young jackdaw birds, born to domesticated parents as it is against the law to use wild birds. Animation work was completed by Amsterdam visual effects company Shosho.

The film was shot on the northern eastern fringes of Amsterdam’s urban sprawl over 26 days in May and June 2011. “We had to shoot in the late spring, early summer because we were using live birds so the production was linked to their birth cycle,” says Koole.

Working with a young boy with a short attention span and six young jackdaw birds may sound like quite a challenge, but Koole’s past work making documentaries about children served him well. “I asked for a really small crew. My documentary work means I am used to shooting things spontaneously. A number of the scenes are improvised,” explains Koole, whose documentaries include Letters from Belfast, following the lives of children growing up amid the conflict in Northern Ireland, and Surviving in the Netherlands, about children who have to fight hard for their existence.

Koole and his director of photography Daniel Bouquet managed to coax wonderfully natural performances out of Lens and the other young cast members. “For some of the scenes, I did ask the children what they wanted to do… we would direct them but the scene would come out of their energy. There is a scene, for example, where the children are running through a field, playing hide-and-seek.

That comes from them,” says the filmmaker. “I think that’s why Jojo’s smile is so real in that scene. You feel real joy.”

“I have watched the film a number of times now and I still spend most of the final part in tears.”

“I was looking for a child who was a bit edgy, rough.”
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