08/01/2007

Belgian director Koen Mortier’s film Ex Drummer [+see also:
trailer
film profile] has been selected in competition at the 36th Rotterdam International Film Festival (January 24–February 4, 2007), where it will compete for a Tiger Award.

Mortier, who makes his feature debut with Ex Drummer, has already starred in two shorts and several commercials. After having set up his Belgian production company Czar.be with producers Ruben Goots and Joe Vanhoutteghem, with the latter he co-wrote (under the pen-name Lionel Goldstein) several commercials that won him three Golden Lions at Cannes International Advertising Festival.

Loosely adapted from Herman Brusselmans’s 1994 novel, and shot in full at Ostende, Ex Drummer tells the story of three musicians who decide to form a somewhat unique band. The bass player has a rigid arm, the singer cannot sing and the guitarist is deaf. In their quest for glory and a drummer, they knock on the door of a successful writer to use his fame.

However, in keeping with the spirit of the group, he too has to have a serious handicap, and he does – he doesn’t know how to play the drums. This fourth character is played by actor and Belgian author Dries Vanhegen, while Norman Baert (who starred in Mortier’s short A Hard Day's Work), Sam Louwyck (Any Way the Wind Blows [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) Gunter Lamoot, Wim Willaert (When the Sea Rises) and Jan Hammenecker round off the cast of a film in which music plays a key role.

The soundtrack consists of unreleased tracks from singer Arno (who recently starred in Martine Doyen’s Komma [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), as well songs from Millionaire, Flip Kowlier, Guy Van Nueten and from such bands as Lightning Bolt, Devo, Mogwai, Isis, Ghinzu, Funeral Dress and Madensuyu, among others.

Ex Drummer is produced by the director’s Belgian outfit CCCP, founded for cinema films and documentaries, whose slate already includes features Maria-Dolores by Wayn Traub, Wim Vandekeybu’s Blush, the documentary series Gas Station by Luc Vrydaghs, and other shorts.

Co-produced with Czar.be, USSR (Netherlands), Quad Productions (France) and Mercurio Cinematografica (Italy), the title will be released in the Benelux countries through A-Film and opens in Belgium on January 31. Negotiations on international sales agreements are still underway.

(Translated from French)