Shooting has commenced today, 5 June, on Discordia, which is the debut feature film by Belgian director Matthieu Reynaert, who notably gave us the short film Hey Joe, but is also the co-writer of Joachim Lafosse’s Loving Without Reason [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Joachim Lafosse
scheda film] and Luc Jabon’s Les Survivants [+leggi anche:
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scheda film].

The story revolves around a middle-aged lumberjack who lives like a hermit in a cursed forest. Fifteen years before, a mysterious tribe took his daughter from him. He has searched the whole wide world looking for her, but all in vain. As he returns to his starting point, it turns out his daughter is the one to find him. But she’s been followed... A dark forest, a widowed lumberjack, a lonely and mysterious young woman… It all makes for an intriguing and surprising tale, conjuring up a fantastical, timeless universe reminiscent of fairy tales and myth. With the feel of a heroic fantasy story, the author actually intended it to be an intimist fantasy story and an outdoor huis-clos; a genre film, in other words - still a rare thing in French-language Belgian cinema – revolving around a handful of strong characters and a place which invites phantasmagoria.

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Stepping into the shoes of the intrepid heroine is young Belgian actress Sophie Breyer, who revealed herself to wider audiences in the three series The Break, Laetitia and Baraki, and who recently dazzled in Christophe Hermans’ The Hive [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Christophe Hermans
scheda film], scooping the Rising Star Award at the Rome Film Festival and the Magritte for Best Female Newcomer back in February. Joining her in the cast are Thierry Hellin and Soufian El Boubsi.

Discordia is produced by Stéphane Lhoest on behalf of Dragons Films, who were also notably responsible for Laura Wandel’s highly successful debut feature film Playground [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Laura Wandel
scheda film], selected in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section. The film also received backing from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation Film and Audiovisual Centre, as well as from Be TV, RTL and Tax Shelter. Co-produced in France by Same Player, filming on the feature is set to continue in Belgium until 27 June.

Discordia enjoyed aid from the lightweight production support scheme which was initiated by the WBF with the dual objective of facilitating directors’ transition to feature films and encouraging narrative and aesthetic risk-taking by welcoming genre films with curiosity and openness. A wide range of films have benefitted from the initiative since its launch, including Madly in Life [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Raphaël Balboni e Ann Sirot
scheda film], an unusual comedy about the impact of neuro-degenerative illnesses on families by Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni, which went on to win awards in multiple festivals and bagged 7 Magritte awards; the trashy, schoolkid comedy selected for Sundance Mother Schmuckers [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Harpo e Lenny Guit
scheda film] by Lenny and Harpo Guit; Aya [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Simon Coulibaly Gillard
scheda film], an intimist portrait, buoyed by a documentarian approach, of a young woman from the Ivory Coast torn between tradition and modernity, by Simon Coulibaly Gillard; It’s Raining in the House [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Paloma Sermon-Daï
scheda film] by Paloma Sermon-Daï, which was selected for this year’s Critics’ week where it won the Jury Prize; and Lost Children [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Michèle Jacob
scheda film] by Michèle Jacob, whose selection in Karlovy Vary has just been announced.