02/02/2011

This week, Michael R. Roskam’s debut feature Bullhead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bart Van Langendonck
interview: Michaël R. Roskam
film profile] is being released in Belgium. A sensational film about the Belgian hormone mafia underworld, it has created an enthusiastic buzz and won rave reviews from critics, who haven’t hesitated in comparing it to prestigious predecessors.

Bolstered by a very physical performance from Matthias Schoenaerts, Bullhead has a dark and dense atmosphere. It is lensed by up-and-coming DoP Nicolas Karakatsanis, who recently won acclaim for his work on Caroline Strubbe’s Lost Persons Area [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. Schoenaerts (omnipresent in contemporary Flemish films, from My Queen Karo [+see also:
trailer
film profile] to Pulsar [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and, of course, Loft [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) heads a stellar cast that includes Barbara Sarafian (Moscow Belgium [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Sam Louwyck (22nd of May [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Jeroen Perceval (With Friends Like These [+see also:
trailer
interview: Felix van Groeningen
film profile]), and Francophone actor Philippe Grand’Henry (The Missing Half).

Produced by Bart Van Langendonck (Savage Films) and Peter Bouckaert (Eyeworks), in co-production with Belgium’s Artemis and Holland’s Waterland Films, Bullhead received backing from the Vlaams Audiovisual Fund, the Belgian French Community Film and Audiovisual Centre, Wallimage / Bruxellimage, the Netherlands Film Fund and the MEDIA programme. It is being released by Kinepolis on an ambitious 30-print run in Flanders and Brussels.

Another Artémis production is hitting screens: Pascale Lamche’s documentary Black Diamond, about the football “slave traders” who unscrupulously combine drug and people trafficking, under the aegis of the sacred ballgame. Cinéart is releasing the film on two screens.

In Belgian theatres, this week’s line-up is almost entirely European (except for Korean film The Housemaid), with other releases including French films Angèle et Tony [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Alix Delaporte and In Your Hands [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Lola Doillon (on six and seven screens, respectively); Christopher Morris’s UK title Four Lions [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; and Burhan Qurbani’s German flick Shahada (Faith) [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

(Translated from French)