20/06/2025 - Belgian filmmaker Lucas Belvaux returns with a psychological thriller featuring a bizarre manhunt

Ramzy Bedia, Linh-Dan Pham and Niels Schneider in The Haunted Minds

Belgian filmmaker Lucas Belvaux has the honour of opening the Brussels International Film Festival with the world premiere of his 12th feature film, The Haunted Minds [+see also:
interview: Lucas Belvaux
film profile], a psychological thriller that depicts a strange manhunt, where the object of the quest becomes increasingly internal.

Lucas Belvaux had previously adapted Didier Decoin's 38 Witnesses (One Night) [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Laurent Mauvignier's Home Front [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucas Belvaux
film profile]. This time, he adapts his own eponymous novel, released in 2022. The Haunted Minds questions the pact that unites three souls battered by life, to the point where they begin to question its cost. Skender (Niels Schneider), a former soldier, is haunted by past atrocities and the deaths he has caused along the way. He lives on the streets, having cut ties with his wife and sons. One day, he runs into Max (Ramzy Bedia), his former sergeant. Max seems to have made a clean break with the past. He now works for Madame (Linh-Dan Pham), somewhere between a handyman and a henchman. He offers Skender a strange deal: become the prized prey in Madame's ultimate hunt, in exchange for a huge sum of money that will allow him to provide for his family. Max will be responsible for enforcing the rules of the hunt, which have been agreed upon by both parties. But the mission quickly takes a different turn. As the weeks go by, before the countdown reaches its end, the three protagonists are led to reflect not only on the consequences, but also on the underlying reasons for their actions. Ultimately, does fear keep us alive, or does it prevent us from living? And besides, does true courage consist in braving death or daring to live?

Little by little, the film revisits the past of the three main characters, revealing the original traumas that led them to this disillusionment, which seems to have made them lose their zest for life. The issue quickly becomes less about knowing the outcome of the hunt and more about wondering what could dissuade them from taking part in it. While Max is caught in a conflict of loyalty between his friend and former comrade and his boss, who is his last link to the world, Skender reconnects with his family, understanding what he risks losing by wanting to give them everything. As for Madame, who is at the root of this whole story, the gradual unveiling of the mystery surrounding her origins allows us to partially explore the reasons for her unease. As in Des hommes, Lucas Belvaux explores the impact of war on soldiers, the scars it leaves on their bodies but above all on their psyche, evoking without naming them the concepts of post-traumatic stress and toxic masculinity, which Madame herself may also have encountered in her life, in other ways. And rather than putting their lives in the hands of another, the hunter and the hunted are invited to take control of their own lives.

The Haunted Minds was produced by Artemis Production (Belgium) and Bizibi (France). Studio TF1 Distribution handles international sales.

(Translated from French)