SYNOPSICS
Joy (2010) is a Dutch movie. Mijke de Jong has directed this movie. Samira Maas,Coosje Smid,Dragan Bakema,Sharon Schouten are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2010. Joy (2010) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
Joy is an emotionally damaged young woman of eighteen, who was given up at birth, to grow up in homes and with foster families. She lives on the fringes of society, getting by on benefits and earning a little extra by playing the accordion in the subway. In addition, she is a skilled shoplifter and has never been caught. The film follows her closely during her dogged search for her unknown biological mother. Joy has a rather distant quality and the only times we see her animated is during her obsessive attempts to discover the identity and address of her mother. She clings to her conviction that she was the product of a loving relationship and that is why her mother called her Joy. This belief is all she has to hang onto in life. Her other activities revolve around her friend, Denise (16), who has got pregnant on purpose and is living in the home from which Joy was expelled because of bad behaviour, and her boyfriend Momo (21), a second-generation immigrant who was born and bred in ...
Joy (2010) Reviews
Underrated pearl
The film had almost no publicity at it's debut. When it was picked up by the major Dutch talk show "Pauw & Wittenman" because of his merits, and the story of the the debuting leading roll player Samira Maas, it had already almost disappeared from rotation. I saw that show, wanted to see the film and had only the choice between Saturday morning 11.00u., Sunday morning 11.00u.and Wednesday at 12.00u. after which it disappeared from rotation. I sat in the movie theater at Saturday morning with 1 other viewer at an unchristian time when one should hate going to a movie, but I never regretted it. In fact I am browsing the internet at this moment to see if the DVD isn't out yet, because I want to see the film again. The movie has two great assets: The performance of Samira Maas & the intense colors it is filmed in. Samira plays a foster child curious to find her mother. She is not a professional actress, but in fact a foster child herself, who is studying law school and volunteering at an organization who informs about & supports the rights of foster children. The under-cooled "anger against society" that she ventilates in her roll sparkle from her eyes & jump down from the screen. Yet it's a roll & not her character, nor her personal life experience. Although her job probably prepared her richly for it and made per the perfect fit for the roll, she nevertheless shows an amazing natural talent in acting and has a mesmerizing fresh & brutal screen-presence. The second great asset of the film is the way light is used. By over-lightning, the colors get a bleak but immensely bright character, that brilliantly fit the content & the atmosphere of the story: young women on the verge of adulthood, with inner pain & need of attention, struggling to get their life rolling and finding closure on their past of being abandoned and having to grow up in an institute for foster children, but nevertheless going firmly forward. Joy is a small film constantly breathing in the neck of it's actors, and thus concentrating on their mindset and psychological development, rather then on a big story or beautiful sets. No murders, crimes, guns, just a natural psychological development, dramatized in a human story dealing with the anger issues that belong to the pain of abandonment, in it's own sort of controlled, fruitful way. The plot is simple but effective: Young girl determent to find her mother, yet afraid to contact the person who she thinks is her mother, starts spying on her to discover who she herself is.
Looking for my mother
Joy, an intense young woman, was abandoned by her mother when she was born. When the film begins, we watch as preparations are made to leave the baby in a place where she can be found. The scene changes to the dish washing station of a cafeteria, where Joy works. Above all, she wants to connect with the woman that gave her up at birth. Storming the office of an agency that deals in such cases, she is given a name and address. Joy will become relentless in her pursuit of her unknown mother. In her personal life, she is involved with a Serbian man, now living with his large family in Holland. Joy has a best friend, Denise, who is pregnant. Joy is also an expert shoplifter in conjunction with her friend, who fakes being sick, while Joy steals without being detected. Her conflict with her man stems from the fact she is overwhelmed every time she meets with his relatives, in contrast with her own lack of them. After getting the name and the address of a woman that is supposed to be her mother, Joy begins spying on her. Joy discovers the woman that is supposed to be her mother, living with her teen aged daughter in what appear a well adjusted environment. As she follows them, Joy realizes she can break into their home, something that she does frequently, while they are away. Instead of attempting a reunion, Joy is repulsed by her conviction the woman never cared for her. Denise goes into labor and that brings Joy to go into the hospital to assist in the delivery. The baby seems to have a calming effect on Joy because it connects with her maternal instinct. Her loyalty to Denise also has a neutralizing effect on the tormented Joy, who at last, gets some reconciliation in whom she really is. A small film Dutch film that in its 78 minutes running time packs quite a punch. Director Mijke De Jong, working with Helena Van Der Mullen's screenplay gives us a full account on a young woman that was cheated of a normal life by what her selfish mother did to her. The story is told in a lot of close ups that show what is going on in Joy's mind as she tries to reconcile herself with what destiny dealt her. In Samira Maas, the creator of "Joy" found an intelligent young actress that gives life to the heroine of the story. Ms. Maas is a wonder to behold whose energy fills the screen with a luminosity of her own. It is difficult to think any other performer could have given such a detailed account of this character. Beautifully photographed by Ton Peters, and with incidental music by Rini Dobbelaar, the film surprises. Mr. De Jong, the director of the also intense "Katia's Sister" shows a talent for created intimate portraits of people in crisis.