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RELEASES Belgium

Belgian flicks set to enjoy busy autumn in cinemas

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Every year, about 30 Belgian films are released in theatres, with a large number of them hitting screens in the second half of the year. This can be explained in part by the fact that Flanders produces quite a number of family films which are usually released around the time of the Halloween and Christmas holidays.

Moreover, prestigious films (shown at major international festivals) are often released in the autumn, in particular the crop of Cannes titles. This year will be no different with the release of Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon’s The Fairy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon
film profile
]
at the end of September, and The Giants [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Bouli Lanners
film profile
]
by Bouli Lanners (photo) sat the start of October. Early September will also see the release of Djo Munga’s Viva Riva! [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, which was unveiled at Toronto and won acclaim at Berlin.

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There is a string of Flemish film releases lined up. Hitting screens at the end of August is Kaat Beels’s Swooni, an enclosed encounter in a hotel where six peculiar strangers cross paths, including Issaka Sawadogo (who will also appear in Nicolas Provost’s The Invader). This is followed by Geoffrey Enthoven’s intriguing road movie Hasta la Vista, which charts the Spanish adventure of three young disabled men looking for love.

At the end of October, mainstream audiences will surely flock to theatres to see Jakob Verbruggen’s big-screen adaptation of detective series Code 37 (a remake of which is currently underway in the US). At the beginning of November, it will be the turn of Frank Van Passel’s surrealist comedy Madonna’s Pig to try to win over audiences. Finally, in December, Frank Van Mechelen’s Germaine will try to attract viewers.

On the Francophone side, there are no release dates yet for Miel Van Hoogenbemt’s Only Son, Pierre Duculot’s Au Cul du Loup (“In the Wolf’s Arse”), or Stephen Streker’s Montana, but as the films are ready, they could well hit screens this autumn. The same goes for Chantal Ackerman’s Almayer’s Folly and Provost’s The Invader, which we should be reporting on again soon.

Finally, La Parti is preparing a rather unusual initiative for its film shown in May in the Cannes ACID sidebar: “Le Grand Tour on Tour” will take Jérôme Le Maire, Vincent Solheid and Benjamine de Cloedt’s film (whose international title is The Big Trip) on a provincial tour of cultural centres and other small local theatres, kicking off next October at the Namur Film Festival.

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(Translated from French)

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