Busy autumn for Belgian directors
It will be a busy autumn in the Belgian film world, as numerous directors will start shooting on new films.
Among the debut titles, two promising short film directors will make the transition to features. In Aveyron in October, John Shank will shoot Last Winter, a rural drama centring on young 30-year-old farmer Yohan, who gradually sinks into madness.
The film is produced by Tarantula, and co-produced by France’s Silex Films and Switzerland’s PCT. It has received backing from the Belgian French Community Film and Audiovisual Centre (CCA) and the Vlaams Audiovisual Fund (VAF), and an advance on receipts from France’s National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC).
Another project jointly backed by the CCA and VAF, Nicolas Provost is getting ready to shoot L’Envahisseur (“The Invader”) in Brussels and Rotterdam in September. It catches up with Amadou, the protagonist of short film Exoticore, an immigrant from Burkina-Faso who is on a descent into hell.
The film is produced by Belgium’s Versus and Prime Time, in collaboration with Holland’s Revolver, and France’s Avenue B Productions.
In September, shooting is also expected to start on Mixed Kebab. After focusing on mixed marriages in Kassablanka, which centred on the relationship between the son of a Flemish nationalist and the daughter of a Muslim fundamentalist, Guy Lee Thys is this time tackling homosexual relationships in Antwerp’s Turkish community. The film is produced by Fact & Fiction and Holland’s Column Film.
At just 36 years of age, Geoffrey Enthoven will start shooting in October on his fifth feature after Children of Love, Vidange Perdue, Happy Together and Meisjes!. Hasta la Vista takes the form of a road movie, the saga of three young disabled men who travel to Spain where they hope to lose their virginity in a special establishment. Based on a true story and produced by Fobic, the film will mark the return of a young Belgian director and actress Yolande Moreau.
Finally, shooting will wrap this autumn on numerous titles that started lensing this summer, from Bouli Lanners’s highly-anticipated third film (The Giants) to the Dardenne brothers’ new work Délivrez-moi! (“Set Me Free!”, with surprise cast member Cécile de France), and Montana, the second film by Stephan Streker (Michael Blanco).
(Translated from French)
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