Ramdam unveils a programme brimming with Belgian premieres

by Aurore Engelen

11/01/2022 - Despite all the doubts hovering over the process of organising the festival, it’s back this year, unspooling from 15-25 January in Tournai

Ramdam unveils a programme brimming with Belgian premieres

The Last Temptation of the Belgians by Jan Bucquoy

After taking a year off in 2021, owing to COVID, the Tournai Ramdam Festival (which bears the tagline “The Festival That Disturbs”) is back this year, despite all the doubts and fears hovering over the process of organising the event. The movie theatres are still open in Belgium subject to a certain number of regulations, including caps on audience numbers, but the festival will nevertheless press on with its 12^th edition. And those film buffs still keen to get out and about will have more than enough to get their teeth into.

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Indeed, Ramdam has announced no fewer than 15 Belgian premieres, in addition to a jam-packed programme of previously released movies, a selection of short films and a film class with Coline Serreau.

Of particular note among the features being screened exclusively are the new film by Maria Schrader, I’m Your Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maria Schrader
film profile], which was unveiled last winter at the Berlinale, as well as the Finnish flick The Blind Man Who Didn’t Want to See Titanic [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Teemu Nikki and Jani Pösö
interview: Teemu Nikki, Jani Pösö an…
film profile] by Teemu Nikki, winner of the Audience Award at Venice last summer in the Orizzonti section, where Uberto Pasolini’s Nowhere Special [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Uberto Pasolini
film profile] (Italy/UK/Romania) was also presented, but the previous year, another title that the audience in Tournai will be able to enjoy.

The programme take in some gems real that were first revealed at various international festivals: viewers will also be able to see films that world-premiered at Cannes, such asSmall Body [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Samani
film profile] by Italy’s Laura Samani (selected in the Critics’ Week), The Innocents [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eskil Vogt
film profile] by Eskil Vogt (Norway), picked for Un Certain Regard, plus the winner of the Audience Award at the most recent Rome Film Fest, Mediterráneo: The Law of the Sea [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Marcel Barrena (Spain/Greece).

The bulk of the contingent will nevertheless be made up of French films, with the premiere of the winner of the Venice Golden Lion, Happening [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anamaria Vartolomei
film profile] by Audrey Diwan, A Change of Heart [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a film by Jérémie Elkaïm (starring Marina Foïs), Promises [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Kruithof
film profile] by Thomas Kruithof (with Isabelle Huppert and Reda Kateb), Goliath [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Frédéric Tellier, and Simone, a Woman of the Century, the Simone Weil biopic helmed by Olivier Dahan (toplined by Elsa Zylberstein in the title role), which will be shown as the closing film.