SHABU
Shamira Raphaela
Written & Directed by
Year
2021
The UK release of SHABU is supported by the BFI National Lottery Audience Fund. We’d appreciate your support in measuring the impact of the campaign.
A precocious Rotterdam teenager, Shabu isn’t doing great. After stealing and crashing his grandmother’s car – and getting a remote scolding from her via Skype – he owes her €1,200 to be paid at the end of the summer when she’s back from Suriname. He takes on a series of odd jobs to save up the cash, but finds them boring and would much rather hang out with his best friend Jahnoa or girlfriend Stephy (although he often has a hard time choosing which).
Then, spurred on by the dog days of a sun-dappled urban summer, inspiration hits – and Shabu decides to stage a block party in order to showcase his talents as a rapper and earn back his grandmother’s trust while exploring the architecturally striking, working-class Rotterdam neighbourhood of De Peperklip (The Paperclip) and its multifarious community, it’s a joyful, evocative, and optimistic watch.
This film contains flickering or flashing lights that may affect those with photosensitive epilepsy
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Producers
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“As if Jacques Demy had jazzed up La Haine”
THE GUARDIAN
★★★★
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“Its playful editing and musical embellishments adding a sheen seldom seen outside of fiction filmmaking”
LITTLE WHITE LIES
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"It's as if, in expanding the boundaries of what a documentary should be, Raphaela feels an affinity with her subject - neither of them, it seems want to settle for what's expected of them"
SIGHT & SOUND