10/11/2015 - Canadian actress Evelyn Brochu plays the heroine in Tonic Immobility, the first film by young Ghent-born director Nathalie Teirlinck

Alice leads a tedious life as an escort girl, shying away from any deep or meaningful social contact. Her life of solitude, shut away in empty, sterile hotel rooms, passes by from day to day. It is only her conversations with Michael, her driver, and her sporadic visits to her father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, that manage to give her back any vestiges of humanity. But the sudden death of her ex-partner brings her face to face with her responsibilities in terms of caring for her six-year-old son, whose very existence she had preferred to ignore until this moment. Her contentious relationship with the young boy – that is, when there is any relationship at all – will gradually enable her to catch a glimpse of the chance for a new life, which she will have to work hard to reinvest in.

Tonic Immobility [+see also:
trailer
interview: Nathalie Teirlinck
film profile] is the debut film by Nathalie Teirlinck, who rose to fame with her short films, most notably Venus & Me, which toured over 80 festivals. Tonic Immobility already has a strong history behind it, as the project took part in the EAVE and won the Eurimages Award at Cinemart (Rotterdam). The movie will be shot in French, and the role of Alice will be entrusted to Canadian actress Evelyn Brochu (Les Loups, Tom at the Farm [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Inch’Allah [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). She will rub shoulders with Eriq Ebouaney, Johan Leysen and Arieh Worthalter.

Tonic Immobility is being produced by Savage Films, whose schedules have been particularly busy since the success achieved by Bullhead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bart Van Langendonck
interview: Michaël R. Roskam
film profile] in 2011. Savage has just produced The Ardennes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Robin Pront
film profile], the feature debut by Robin Pront, which made a big splash at Toronto – and which incidentally earned Pront and his actor Kevin Janssens a deal with US-based agents – but also Galloping Mind [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the feature debut by multidisciplinary artist (dance, photography, film) Wim Vandekeybus. Savage has also co-produced French-language Belgian films such as Alleluia [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Fabrice Du Welz
film profile] by Fabrice du Welz and Keeper [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Guillaume Senez ­
interview: Kacey Mottet Klein
film profile] by Guillaume Senez, and is developing the upcoming projects by Michael Roskam, of course, but also those by Tom Barman (Anyway the Wind Blows [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Hans Van Nuffel (Oxygen [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

Tonic Immobility is being co-produced by CTM Pictures and 41 Shadows, with backing from the VAF, the CCA, the Nederlands Film Fond and the Danish Film Institute. 

(Translated from French)