13/10/2022 - The Belgian director of Kurdish origin has just commenced filming on her first feature film, produced by Playtime Films

The end of September saw shooting kick off in Brussels on The Virgin and Child [+see also:
film review
film profile], the debut feature film by Belgian director of Kurdish origin Binevsa Berivan. The filmmaker has directed several shorts since graduating from Inraci, including Gardiens, Sidewalk and Phone Story, using the medium to address questions which have marked her personal and artistic trajectory, such as the fate of minorities, especially of women, and the matter of political refugees.

In La Vierge à l’enfant, which she co-wrote alongside David Lambert (All Yours [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: David Lambert
film profile], Beyond the Walls [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: David Lambert
film profile]), she gathers these various concerns together to explore the fate of Avesta, a young Kurdish Yezidi who arrives in Brussels after escaping the hell of Daech. At this point, she only has one thing in mind: taking revenge on the man who reduced her to slavery. Between a relentless quest for justice which forces her to relive the suffering she was subjected to and her obligation to be a mother to a child she didn’t want, Avesta tries to make herself heard, at all costs.

Avesta is played by young German actress Hêvîn Tekin, who’s stepping into her first big role and who’s joined by French actress Laëtitia Eïdo, whose career is currently taking off worldwide (she just finished filming Terrence Malick’s The Way of the Wind and we previously enjoyed her in The Accusation [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Yvan Attal
film profile] and Tel Aviv on Fire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sameh Zoabi
film profile]). They’re surrounded by Belgian actors and actresses along the lines of Isabelle de Hertogh (recently seen in Lost Illusions [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Giannoli
film profile] and soon appearing in Olivier Ringer’s Les Gentils), Flonja Kodheli (the actress and director whose first short film Ma Me Kalu walked away with the Court En Dit Long Festival’s Grand Prize in the spring) and Barbara Sarafian (a very familiar face on Flemish TV, gracing series such as Beau Séjour and Soil).

The Virgin and Child is produced by Isabel de la Serna on behalf of Playtime Films (Belgium) - who are currently wrapping filming on season 3 of the hit Belgian series Public Enemy - in co-production with Xavier Rombaut on behalf of Polar Bear (Belgium). The movie enjoys support from the Wallonia Brussels Federation Film Centre, screen.brussels, the Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds, Proximus and Be TV, as well as from the Tax Shelter initiative. Shooting will mainly take place in Brussels, until 31 October.

(Translated from French)