Bluebird

Sensibly spare, tremendously affecting teen drama from Holland about 13-year-old Merel, a girl who despite seemingly having everything going for her – intelligence, athleticism, musical talent, happy family relationships, especially with her disabled younger brother – is thrust into an introverted world of silent misery by the bullying of her classmates. Rightly, this has enough confidence not to dress up its hard-hitting subject matter, though it flirts precariously with teenage girl clichés (stealing make-up, piercings, ‘Anna Karenina’) and doesn’t quite maintain its momentum to the end.