Review - Sounds like teen spirit - a film about Junior Eurovision | Eurovision Song Contest News - 2010 Oslo, Norway 

Sounds like teen spirit, is a film by Jamie J Johnson about the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. It takes the form of a humorous documentary about the struggles of growing up. It follows the journey of four of the contestants in Rotterdam for the 2007 Junior contest and meets them in their homes preparing for the contest. The film also talks generally and affectionately about the whole idea of the Eurovision Song Contest that was founded over 50 years ago to unite the Europe torn apart in the Second world war. Sounds like teen spirit has been circulated on several film festivals and will gets its general UK cinema release on 8 May.

Eurovision fan Monty Moncrieff has kindly allowed us to publish his personal review of the film first on esctoday.com:

As Jamie Johnson’s documentary starts rolling we’re introduced to the instantly amiable Bab, a thirteen year-old Belgian girl whose apparent stoicism when her best friend steals away her boyfriend has been channelled into song, namely her defiant attempt to represent her country at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Sadly, this isn’t to be the end of Bab’s troubles, as she’s about to lose again, somewhat inopportunely you feel, to a band called ‘Trust’ in her national final.

Trust features the gangling Laurens, blighted by the worst that mid-adolescence has to offer: he’s lanky, awkward, and ravaged by the onset of teenage hormones (there’s barely a girl safe from his roving eye in his native Ypres). Joining him and his band in the Contest are a pan-European mix of dreamers and talented misfits.

10 year-old Giorgios is from Cyprus. He’s been bullied by his schoolmates who see his disinterest in football as an ‘obvious’ indicator that he’s gay. He’s been bonding with his father in an as-yet unsuccessful attempt to catch fish.

Marina is from Bulgaria. At first we’re led to believe she’s the archetypal rich-kid as she shows us her family’s private swimming pool but soon we learn that’s just a by-product of her father’s new wealth. He owns three bowling-alleys and a shopping mall, but he’s left Marina and her mum for another woman – although still offers his ex-wife an income via a job at one of his businesses – and Marina hopes her participation in an international TV show will convince him to come back to them. He doesn’t watch the broadcast.

Our quartet is completed by 13 year-old Mariam from Georgia. She’s proud to represent her country, whose inhabitants in turn are proud to have her, offering her family freebies at the market, whilst the local priest (an unlikely heavy-rock fan) conveys God’s blessings upon her. She’s trying to better her English and must leave her mother behind in their crumbling Soviet-era flat to look after her young brother and try to watch the Contest on a TV-set that refuses to tune-in as she travels abroad for the first time in her young life.

Such disparity forms the backbone of this charming film. Although it centres on the outcomes of the 2007 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, in reality it presents us with a selection of personal journeys, individual dreams and international hopes whilst reminding us of some of the thrills and torments of being a young teenager. Along the way there are tears of both joy and of sadness as out starlets experience the best and worst teenage angst has in store.

The film is subtlety edited to let the children’s own stories come to the fore, allowing us all-too rare glimpses of the anxieties of looming adolescence mixed with the frank reality – and unassuming hilarity – of a not-yet cynical view of the world. Laurens’ classical piano training stands at odds with his desire to be both cool and desirable. Marina manages to experience her first flushes of puppy-love, despite having witnessed the unhappiness of her mother’s abandonment.

There are some delicious moments from our competitors: Giorgios describes his inability to hit the right notes in the national final, concluding it was better to stay in the (wrong) key of his inadvertent choosing than to change and make it obvious he knew he hadn’t got it right. The Ukrainian girl plays to her full stage-school prepping in a master-class of earnest emoting whilst organisers panic about her potentially overly-sexualised costume: she is despatched immediately to the local shopping-mall for a more modest replacement. And a cameo from the Russian twins who had claimed victory the year before is car-crash cinema and a cringe-worthy demonstration of utter precocity.

But of course, in true Eurovision fashion, there can only be one winner, and as most fans watching will already be aware it’s none of our new friends above. As Belarus cruise to a second Junior victory there’s an early lesson in life for our protagonists. Marina’s Bulgarian girl-band finish 7th, but she appears to be happy enough (she’s found a new boyfriend, remember?). Trust end up in 15th place (out of 17) but claim they take solace in each another and are recording their debut album as consolation. Giorgios finishes 14th, thanks mainly to the ever-dependent 12 points from Greece (whose anticipated support is an earlier in-joke for Contest followers), but he’s philosophical beyond his years as he reflects upon his experiences and prepares to meet his school mates. And the look on the Ukrainian girl’s face as she realises it’s game-over is worth the price of the admission ticket (and an extra bucket of pop-corn) ten-fold.

However, it’s Mariam who is our real winner. She achieves 4th place, which in many countries would be deemed a failure. However her obvious joy is a delight and the ensuing sense of national pride is a sobering reminder of just how much Eurovision means to some of its newer, formerly suppressed, states. She is personally thanked by the Georgian First Lady, in attendance at the show, and is subsequently telephoned by the President before being afforded a hero’s welcome when she lands back on home soil.

Throughout this heart-warming film the politics that hound the adult show are kept – mostly – at bay. There’s an almost amateurish sense of fun from the contestants about the whole proceedings and a feeling of genuine adventure by most of the main characters. Politics, however, are present, initially in the director’s unobtrusive narrative backdrop as Jamie Johnson sets the scene for the film, but more pertinently in Mariam’s after story, as her family are forced to flee their home in Gori following the recent conflict in the area. But hopes rise even here, as Mariam describes her wish to pursue a new life in Tbilisi.

Even if you dislike the Junior Eurovision show – in fact, even if you deride the adult Contest – there is much here to enjoy in a tale of national pride, blossoming talent, and – most of all – growing-up whilst enjoying the best of still being a big kid. This is a great film: you really must go and see it.

Watch trailer on official website here

Sounds like teen spirit
A film by Jamie J Johnson
Produced by Elizabeth Karlsen & Stephen Woolley
Released by Warner Music: 8 May
Running timer: 93 mins