Holly (2023 film)

Holly is a 2023 Dutch-language drama film written and directed by Fien Troch. It is an international co-production between Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and France.

The film was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it premiered on 7 September 2023.

Synopsis
One morning, 15-year-old Holly calls in absent to her school. Shortly thereafter, a serious fire breaks out, which destroys part of the school building and takes the lives of several students. Months later, the accident has still not been fully processed by the traumatized city population. Teacher Anna has created a volunteer group for the grieving community to give comfort to one another. Intrigued by Holly's strange premonition, she invites her to join her group. The girl's presence seems to bring unexpected peace of mind, warmth and hope to the group members. Without Anna's help, people soon begin to seek out Holly and her cathartic energy and demand more and more of her. The gifted girl unwittingly becomes the town's savior. The line between support and abuse is beginning to blur.

Cast

 * Cathalina Geeraerts as Holly
 * Felix Heremans as Bart
 * Greet Verstraete as Anna
 * Serdi Faki Alici as Anna's husband
 * Els Deceukelier as Holly's mother
 * Maya Louisa Sterkendries as Dawn
 * Robby Cleiren
 * Sara De Bosschere

Production
For the film, Troch again teamed with Frank van den Eeden as director of photography, and her husband Nico Leunen as editor, the latter of whom has been involved in all of Troch's works. For the film's score, she enlisted the American musician Johnny Jewel, former member of the band Chromatics, who she already worked with on her previous feature film Home (2016).

As of September 2021, the film was budgeted at €2.5 million. It was produced by Antonino Lombardo for his company Prime Time (Belgium) and Elisa Heene for Mirage (Belgium), in co-production with Tarantula (Luxembourg), Les Films du Fleuve (Belgium), Topkapi (Netherlands), Tabiki (Netherlands) and Agat Films (France). Production support was provided by Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), Casa Kafka, Cinéart, Netherlands Film Fund, Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Film Fund Luxembourg.

Release
Holly was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 7 September 2023. It was also invited at the 28th Busan International Film Festival in 'World Cinema' section and was screened on 6 October 2023.

The film is scheduled to be released in Belgium on 22 November 2023 by Cinéart, who is also set to distribute the film in the Netherlands on 7 March 2024.

Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 64% based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10.