Content warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault.
After spending this summer as a student at Kasteel Well, Mayeni Kpenge, a senior Global BFA student, returned to Limburg to shoot her thesis film “Babyface.”
The film follows a young woman studying abroad in the Netherlands, who, while taking a solo trip to Amsterdam for her twentieth birthday, becomes endangered by two men persistently making unwanted sexual advances. The situation allows the character to learn the importance of speaking up for herself and setting clear personal boundaries.
“I honestly just wanted to find a way to come back to Kasteel,” said Kpenge. “I really felt like there was such a community there.”
Kpenge is currently studying filmmaking at the Paris College of Art, but completed part of her degree by taking film courses in the Netherlands.
The “Babyface” team began production in Well on Feb. 2.
On a weekend when many of the students were travelling, the crew shot on location at the Kasteel Well campus, a 14th-century castle with buildings renovated into a Living Learning Community of dormitories and classrooms where Emersonians can study.
The crew filmed multiple scenes in the surrounding town of Well, featuring locations like Bakkerij Smits, a bakery a few minutes down the road from Kasteel, that is a favorite snack spot among students.
“If we filmed in Paris, it would have been harder to get a bakery because, you know, it’s a big city and very busy,” said Kpenge. “That was very accessible and very easy to get because it is a small town.”
“It felt really accessible to come back and just be on campus,” Kpenge said. “The castle has such a beautiful backdrop, I felt like we didn’t really have to do a ton in terms of production design. It just made sense economically.”
In addition to incorporating locations both on and off campus, the crew was able to enlist the help of several members of the community. Multiple students currently studying at Kasteel Well aided behind the scenes, and others played schoolmates of the protagonist.
The film included input from residents of the town. Well resident Corianne Van Der Horst leads Spelen met Groen, a program that allows students to work in her garden and interact with various farm animals, made a cake that was featured in the film’s party scene. Kpenge loved the opportunity to visit Van Der Horst’s house to feed her pigs and chickens during her semester, and asked her to help out.
While the settings of the film create an idyllic background, Kpenge shared that “Babyface” deals with more serious issues, including challenging popular narratives of sexual assault.
“It’s a film that really touches on the nuances of consent and the idea of the imperfect victim. When it comes to sexual assault, there’s this small box of situations that are deemed acceptable—if you weren’t wearing the right thing, or if you did something that could be perceived as flirting, then automatically it’s the victim’s fault,” said Kpenge. “When we’re making films like this in media, we shouldn’t have to modify the protagonist to be this perfect victim in order to garner sympathy.”
While sexual assault is a major part of the story, Kpenge was quick to clarify that it does not make up the entire plot.
“[The film] also talks about finding your voice, especially as a woman, and the ways that society has socialized women to be agreeable and to appease in situations when they’re uncomfortable,” said Kpenge.
The remainder of the scenes were completed near Kpenge’s study abroad program in Paris. The film will premiere at Emerson in August, after which point the creator will enter it in the U.S. film festival circuit. Information about viewings can be found on the creator’s website.
