Still: Sunny - German Gruber Jr.

Eighteen-year old Fito is a very talented guitarist, but he is a little on the forlorn side. Why? Because he is still in love with Sunny, who no longer returns his love. They have just broken up, and he is still figuring out what that means for their trip to go abroad to study. But such is his confused and lovelorn state of mind he even sells his precious guitar. For Fito, the business of letting go and moving on proves very difficult.

The lovely Sunny meanwhile has other fish to fry, and is more tempted by expensive guys in sports cars. She is more mature than Fito and his friends, as evidenced by their tendency to indulge the harmless practice of throwing eggs at houses, cars or even passers-by.

When he goes to Sunny’s house armed with a handful of eggs, he sees her making out with a local Romeo in his very smart car. So he throws them at the car instead, but gets beaten up for his trouble.

Later, however, he is the recipient of a mystery gift. His old guitar is left outside his house on the porch, a gift from Sunny both to wish him well and to help him accomplish his dreams of studying music in Holland…

The film is in part autobiographical, director German Gruber Jr. tells SEE NL. Yes, he left the island to study in The Netherlands, but to do film. (It was his younger brother who was the musician in the household.) For kids on the island the business of leaving home is not as straightforward as for their European counterparts, Gruber tells SEE NL.

“Parents and grown-ups put a burden on kids, and make them feel like ‘you have to leave the island to become somebody.’ There is a pressure we deal with - the universal aspect of leaving home. But for us that means having to cross the ocean, really leaving everything behind.”

 And yes, Gruber and his teenage mates would indeed let off steam by throwing eggs. “It was 15,000 inhabitants, so we got bored a lot,” Gruber Jr explains. He also references other things he would do while growing up and which have a strong resonance for local audience, such as eating late evening ice cream while putting the world to rights, local hits from the 90’s, or smoking weed with friends on Chill Hill.

“This is one of the things that really motivates me. While showing things that are going to have a special value for our island film lovers, we are at the same time making it a universal film. That attracts me a lot,” says the director.

Gruber Jr. graduated in The Netherlands with The Legend of Buchi Fil (2008), a short film about the history of slavery. “The reaction to The Legend of Buchi Fil motivated us to make Sensei Redenshon (2013) which was the first film from Curaçao to get a commercial release in Dutch theaters,” he says.

The director is also helping to develop the local film culture together with fellow professionals. “I’ve seen new guys coming with new ideas. It's baby steps still, but I'm very glad to be part of it.” Right now he is working on a feature, based on the novel ‘De Engelenbron’ (‘The Well Of Angels’) by Curaçaoan writer Erich Zielinski, and backed by the Netherlands Film Fund.

Sunny* world-premiered at the Curaçao International Film Festival in April, where the audience reaction was “amazing.”  After the international premiere at Tribeca, he can’t wait to get the film back in front of local audiences on the island. One final question, though. What if they start to throw eggs at the screen. How would he feel? “I would be very happy, I think we all need to blow off some steam.”

Which means he’ll be throwing them right back? “Exactly.”

Find out more about Tribeca here.

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Sunny is directed by German Gruber Jr. and produced by Flinck Film and Provider Films.

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*film supported by the Netherlands Film Fund