How to Watch
When President Isimo declares “Keep it clean!” he doesn’t mean the city streets, he means ridding the schools of children who don’t fit into narrowly defined ideals of beauty. Paul, one of the “ugly” boys, escapes in Jonathan Elbers’ engaging and entertaining dystopian thriller.
Paul (Sem Hulsmann) has always just wanted to be a normal kid. But when President Isimo (Roeland Fernhout) is elected on the “Keep it clean!” platform, Paul’s world becomes undone. When he and a bunch of other “unattractive” children are bussed away from their school, they soon realize they’re being isolated. Paul and his cohorts escape and with other kids, they form the Club of Ugly Children, an underground resistance to challenge the President, and the adults who support him. Soon, the resistance grows too big for even the President to stop. Director Jonathan Elbers, who wrote the screenplay, took sentences from the speeches of current demagogues (as of 2020) for President Isimo, and created a daring, enjoyable and thought-provoking entertaining thriller for the whole family. Winner, New York International Children’s Film Fest Audience Choice Award.
Content advisories: kidnapping, bullying, intense action, some profanity
Director Biography
Jonathan Elbers works at Czar, Amsterdam, an award-winning production company. He completed his studies at the Dutch Film Academy, and one of his commercials was recognized at the Cannes Film Festival. He is the director of numerous short films and the features Circus 3D (2011), Ik hartje oost (2014), and The Club of Ugly Children (2020).
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