13/08/2024 - Christoph Hochhäusler crafts a gritty crime-thriller set in Brussels' underbelly, pitting an old-school crime boss against a modern rival

Very swiftly, German director Christoph Hochhäusler has followed up his arthouse thriller Till the End of the Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christoph Hochhäusler
film profile], which premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival, with another auteur genre film, Death Will Come [+see also:
trailer
interview: Christoph Hochhäusler
film profile], set in the criminal underworld of Brussels and screening in competition at the Locarno Film Festival. The movie opens with Yann (Pitcho Womba Konga), a courier who is caught by police during a road ambush in Luxembourg as he is transporting large sums of cash hidden in paintings. Released on bail by an unknown benefactor, Yann is placed under house arrest in a dilapidated hotel, where he is subsequently shot and killed by an unidentified assailant. Local crime boss Charles Mahr (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), whose money was seized during the raid and who had employed Yann, is incensed by the turn of events and hires a mysterious hitwoman, Tez (Sophie Verbeeck), to track down Yann’s killer.

Hochhäusler gives the US-style hardboiled thriller a European makeover, presenting a world where protagonist Tez isn’t so much kicking the hornet’s nest as being thrown into it. The traditional turf wars have evolved; no longer fought in backroom brawls, they now manifest themselves in high-stakes financial manoeuvring. Mahr, representing the old guard, is invited by his rival Patric De Boer (Marc Limpach) to invest in a cutting-edge venture: a VR brothel with sex dolls. Mahr is reluctant to abandon his tried-and-tested methods, while De Boer – a hedonistic pimp with grandiose visions – sees himself as a forward-thinking entrepreneur, supported by his lawyer and mistress, Julie (Hilde Van Mieghem).

The tension escalates as De Boer grows increasingly desperate for Mahr’s investment, and Mahr hesitates, sensing the futility of such a venture. The plot thickens with suspicions of betrayal; Mahr’s right-hand man may be De Boer’s potential mole, while De Boer harbours an actual mole in his own bed, courtesy of Madame Mela (Delphine Bibet), a blind madame with a sharp political acumen and the ability to manipulate events from behind the scenes. One-woman commando Tez sets out to unravel the web of deceit, hidden motives and disrupted cash flows, leaving a trail of blood in her wake.

Death Will Come presents a complex and densely populated narrative that might be better suited to an episodic format. Hochhäusler eschews the glamour and stylised violence typically associated with the crime genre, instead focusing on the grim reality and psychological toll of a life steeped in crime within the rougher districts of Brussels. The story bears a resemblance to the existentialist themes of Gabriel García Márquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold, particularly in its portrayal of Mahr, whose time is running out owing to health issues, juxtaposed against De Boer, whose clock is ticking due to his business decisions.

Hochhäusler’s crime-thriller highlights the self-destructive tendencies of its male characters, while the female figures, though veiled, wield both physical and political power. Death Will Come is ultimately a character-driven chess match, pitting the old guard against the new, and the old world against the emerging one, all seen through the narrow lens of a fading masculine perspective while the women become more empowered in the seedy underbelly of organised crime.

Death Will Come was produced by Heimatfilm (Germany), Amour Fou Luxembourg and Tarantula Belgique. True Colours handles the international sales.