Synopsis
On 18 november 2003 in the Dutch countryside, passersby discovered a charred body that was later identified as 16-year-old Maja Bradaric. It turned out three of Maja's friends were involved in strangling her and burning her body, and proceeding to pay their respects to her family. Apparently, they had been planning her murder for weeks. In SWEETY: The Friends, Betrayal and Murder of Maja Bradaric, director Menna Laura Meijer depicts Maja's life and final night. She uses a stylised, almost wordless dramatisation of the night's gripping events, when a pleasant drive gradually turned grim, as well as news reports that fill us in on the facts. The vital part of the film is the candid interviews with Maja's circle of friends. We get to know Nina, who was dating one of the culprits at the time of the killing and therefore a suspect for quite some time, as she talks about her memories of Maja. Meijer is quite experienced in dealing with youngsters, after making the trilogy Girls Boys and the TV series Sexy, about teenagers, sex and love. Since 2004, she has worked for IDFA's Kids & Docs workshop, which is devoted to generating more attention for youth documentaries.