Director: Rob Brown.
Starring: Roger Nsengiyumva, Rachael Stirling, Rosie Day, Fady Elsayed, Sam Spruell.
Running Time: 80 minutes
Certificate: 15.
Synopsis: Young Jumah (Roger Nsengiyumva) is settled in an English school and lives with his adoptive mother. He’s quickly gained friends, a girlfriend and a reputation at his new school. But after he witnesses a schoolmate stabbing an older man in the streets, Jumah tries to remain quiet but finds that the event brings back memories from his childhood in Congo.
A stabbing by a school friend awakens many emotions in Jumah. It puts him and his friend – a fellow witness – in a moral dispute where the friend wants to remain quiet while Jumah verges on telling the police what he’s seen. The senseless violence by a fellow young man brings back the memories of childhood soldiers and the monstrosity which he witnessed while being a child soldier in his home country of the Congo.
SIXTEEN’s main downfall is in its questionable realness. Is SIXTEEN realistic? Even if not all of it, is any? This alienates the audience slightly as it becomes difficult to engage in Jumah’s life, actions and understand the situation emotionally. SIXTEEN has chosen to deal with Jumah’s past in a more tasteful way than with flashbacks or constant images from the past, instead using unintentional reactions from the darkness he carries inside in the form of aggressive seizures and so-called fits.
Roger Nsengiyumva does a great job of playing out Jumah’s emotions of confusion, anger, frustration, embarrassment and overprotectiveness. And, although the younger actors are truly brilliant in their performances and come off as both natural and sincere, the older actors disappoint and act in such a drama school way which lets all of the other performances down.
It is hard at times to believe that the film is set in London as a lot of potential great scenery has been missed, and the interactions between the young school children and British culture has been assumed to consist of not much more than sexual curiosity, threats, drug dealing and involvement with thugs.
With such a heavy topic and a stand out performance by Nsengiyumva, SIXTEEN should have made more of an impact, but remains fairly forgettable despite great performances and an interesting story.
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