22/08/2006

Ten Belgian titles, including seven Dutch-language productions, will be screened at this year’s Montreal World Film Festival (August 24-September 4).

The line-up includes Frank Van Mechelen’s Hell in Tangier [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which will be screened in the World Competition section.

Starring one of the most popular Flemish actors, Filip Peeters (The Intruder, Jan Verheyen’s Gilles, Erik Van Looy’s The Alzheimer Case [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Hell in Tangier is the story of a bus driver wrongly accused of drug trafficking and locked up in a Moroccan prison.

Mechelen’s second film is indisputably the success of Flemish cinema this year, with over 180,000 admissions (see news).

Along with Martine Doyen’s debut feature, Komma [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], starring singer-composer Arno, screened at the Cannes Critics’ Week (see news), four other features are lined-up for the Focus on World Cinema section: Suspect by Ivan Boeckmans and Guy Lee Thys; Love Belongs to Everyone by Hilde Van Mieghem; The Long Weekend by Hans Herbots, another box office success in Belgium; and The Only One [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Geoffrey Enthoven.

All three, as well as Hell in Tangier, were produced for "Faits Divers", a series of seven films produced by broadcaster VTM in association with Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds (see interview with VAF Director Pierre Drouot). The films’ success would seem to confirm the success of this collaboration.

Lastly, four shorts from the plat pays complete the line-up of Belgian productions: Alice ou la vie en noire et blanc by Sophie Schoukens, Night shift by Wendy Montellano, Noir d'encre by Olivier van Malderghem and Revolution by Xavier Diskeuve.

(Translated from French)