05/05/2009

While Belgian Francophone directors have helmed some true gems of world cinema over the years, the French Community of Belgium is also a major co-production territory.

Of course, financial reasons are behind these co-productions: it’s difficult to raise the funds necessary to secure a budget in such a small country. Co-productions being a reciprocal affair, the favour is then returned to the foreign producer who supported the region’s projects.

However, artistic co-productions remain at the heart of this approach. At the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, viewers will thus discover two Flemish films backed by Francophone co-producers, as well as works by three major filmmakers, who found strong partners in Belgium.

Artemis Productions co-produced the latest film by Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, who is a festival favourite (Cannes Jury Prize in 2002 for Divine Intervention, Best Debut Feature at Venice in 1996 for Chronicle of a Disappearance). The Time That Remains is a motionless journey through time, set in Nazareth, from 1948 to the present day.

Tarantula turned their attention eastwards and backed multiple award-winning Taiwanese director Tsai Ming Liang’s French adventure, Face [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. In the early 1990s, the filmmaker’s works – from Rebels of the Neon God, to Vive L’amour and The River – contributed to the emergence of New Asian Cinema.

Meanwhile, social realism specialists the Dardenne brothers kept their feet on the ground by co-producing Ken Loach’s new social comedy, Looking for Eric [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cannes 2009
Ken Loach
interview: Steve Evets - actor
film profile], through Les Films du Fleuve. The film tells the story of a Mancunian postal worker who regains control of his life thanks to the good advice of his idol, Eric Cantona.

The three above-mentioned films are selected in official competition. There will also be a midnight screening of Marina de Van’s Don’t Look Back, co-produced by Entre Chien et Loup.

(Translated from French)