Fourteen-year-old Shabu has crashed his grandmother’s car and finds himself in the dog house with his extended family in Peperklip, a housing complex in Rotterdam. He must put aside his dreams of musical stardom and his budding romance with Stephany, and work to pay off his debt over the summer.
A kid grudgingly selling homemade popsicles on the street is not the most obvious choice for a documentary subject, but in the irrepressible Shabu, Shamira Raphaëla’s charming film finds an immensely likable and charismatic subject. The film skates in the grey area between factual and fiction film-making, but Shabu’s coming of age and growth as a human being is persuasive, affecting and authentic.
