Belgian filmmaker Patrice Toye's latest feature The Assignment, a drama about a traumatised teenager's search for identity and belonging, has been selected for the Official Competition of the 30th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (6-22 November), where it will celebrate its world premiere (see the news).

Set in Flanders in the summer of 1947, the story follows 16-year-old Ewout, a defiant boy with a glass eye who attends a summer camp for children traumatised by the Second World War with his older brother Rini. Determined to become popular, important and admired, Ewout arrives having memorised sophisticated words and adopted a deliberately masculine air of bravado. His attempts to impress the older boys initially appear successful, but his eagerness to gain their approval soon turns against him.

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Ewout is particularly drawn to Hugo, the charismatic 24-year-old camp leader, whom he comes to regard as a father figure. When he is admitted into the circle formed by the older boys, he feels chosen and embraces their ideals of strength and superiority. However, his efforts to prove himself only make him a target of ridicule while he takes out his frustrations on Jan, a younger camper who looks up to him. As the bullying escalates and Ewout finds himself increasingly isolated, his idealised image of power begins to collapse.

The main cast includes Mathisse De Sutter as Ewout, Thibaud Dooms (Dust, Skunk) as Rini, Felix Heremans (Holly, Putain) as Jan, along with Luka Michielsens as Hugo, Tibo Vandenborre (Clean) as Augustijn and Greet Verstraete (Becoming Mona) as Elza.

Toye's screenplay, co-written with Peter Seynaeve, is freely inspired by Dutch author Wessel te Gussinklo's novel of the same name. The filmmaker has described the existential search of an insecure adolescent as a recurring concern in her work, while the novel's interest in the dangers of group thinking and the attraction of authoritarian figures provided a further point of connection. Sartre's The Childhood of a Leader, which influenced te Gussinklo's book, also informs the film's examination of how an individual can let themselves be shaped by external judgements and the desire for power.

Toye made her feature debut with Rosie, which premiered at the Berlinale in 1999, followed by Wanted Man, Nowhere Man, which won NHK International Filmmakers Prize at Sundance, Little Black Spiders and Tench, which received the Public Prize at Film Fest Ghent and Best Film at the Gangneung International Film Festival.

Richard van Oosterhout serves as cinematographer, Bert Jacobs as editor. The creative team also includes composer John Parish, sound designer Marc Lizier, production designer Vincent de Pater, costume designer Nathalie Leborgne, hair and make-up designer Labhise Allara Mandago Ciratu and casting director Sien Josephine Teijssen.

The Assignment is a Belgian-Geman-Dutch co-production staged by Hans Everaert for Menuetto (Antwerp), in co-production with Harry Flötter and Jörg Siepmann for 2Pilots (Cologne), Robert Alberdingk Thijm and Norbert ter Hall for Willy Waltz International (Amsterdam) as well as Anton Iffland Stettner and Eva Kuperman for Stenola Productions (Brussels). The project was supported by VAF, Belgian Tax Shelter, CCA-FWB, NFF Production Incentive, DFFF, Nordmedia, NRW, Creative Europe MEDIA and Eurimages, with Proximus and VRT as partners. Reason8 is handling the world sales, while Lumière handles Benelux distribution.