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TAke 26 | SuMMeR 2013 | € 3.99
Jeroen
PerCeVal
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FrOM BullHead
tO BOrGMan
GILLeS COuLIeR
cannes retOur
nOrMan
conquers Annecy
PRODuCeRS LOuNGe
eurydice Gysel
ellen de waele
Hendrik Verthé and kobe
Van steenberghe
VaF wIldcards 2013
eXtra
veRSION FRANÇAISe
stIJn cOnInX
tHe dardenne BrOtHers
MarlOn nOwe
carOlIne struBBe
Bart Van den BeMPt
RIVIERA A2
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MONT BLANC
MONT BLANC GILLES COULIER l 30M3 JEROEN BROECKX l LITTLE RYAN AAD VERSTRAELEN l MATURING AS A TREE
HANS GALLE l NIGREDO MICHAEL VAN OSTADE l PATER FAMILIAS BRAM CARTIGNY l TSJERNOBYL HEARTS EMILIE VERHAMME
30M3
PATER FAMILIAS
NIGREDO
LITTLE RYAN
VAF WILDCARD
MATURING AS A TREE
TSJERNOBYL HEARTS
follow us on
ftix
c ntent I TAKE 26
20
eurydice Gysel
the co-producer of a prestigious BBC
series and a Cannes Competition entry
25
eXtra
supplément en français
34
4
Jeroen Perceval
the actor will walk the red
carpet at Cannes this year
10
Marina
Stijn Coninx and the dardenne
brothers have come together to
recount the early years of singer
rocco Granata in the early Sixties
14
team spirit
the company Hendrik Verthé and
Kobe Van Steenberghe built
wild at Heart
who are this year’s VaF Wildcard
laureates?
38
ellen de waele
looks for the right balance
between working with first-time
and experienced filmmakers
42
50
dogs to the rescue
Walking the dog picked up work
on ari Folman’s Cannes Fortnight
entry the Congress that others
had found too demanding
52
Bart Van den Bempt
what influenced the director of
82 days in april?
8
He’s back!
Gilles Coulier returns to
Cannes with Mont Blanc
caroline strubbe
about her second feature
I’m the same I’m an other
46
animation nowe
the Flemish animator who was
involved in the making of the
oscar-winning Paperman
6 i-Opener nymphomaniac I 19 shortissimo norman I 54 Monitor Crimi Clowns
I www.flandersimage.com
3
JeroenPerceVal
From
BullHeaD
to BorgMan
IT HAS TAkeN A LITTLe WHILe, BuT JeROeN PeRCevAL IS BeGINNING TO FeeL THe
BULLHeAD eFFeCT. AFTeR PLAYING OPPOSITe MATTHIAS SCHOeNAeRTS IN THe OSCARNOMINATeD FILM, THe OFFeRS HAve BeeN ROLLING IN. ‘IT TOOk ABOuT A YeAR, BuT
THeN A LOT OF PeOPLe STARTeD CALLING,’ He SAYS. THANkS TO ONe OF THOSe
CALLS He WILL WALk THe ReD CARPeT IN CANNeS FOR THe WORLD PReMIeRe OF
ALex vAN WARMeRDAM’S BorgMAn.
teXt Ian Mundell
44
Other calls led to smaller roles in the French film Son épouse
by Michel Spinosa, shot in India with Charlotte Gainsbourg
and Yvan Attal, and Die andere Heimat, the conclusion of
edgar Reitz’s epic series exploring German history. The
shifts in accent and language of this international work
have been rewarding. ‘Some actors like to stay close to
themselves, but I like to change.’
Perceval comes from a theatrical family. After graduating in
2001 from the Herman Teirlinck Studio in Antwerp he took
to the stage as both as a writer and performer. His feature
PortraItS FIlIP Van rOe
film debut followed in 2006 with Felix van Groeningen’s
with friends Like These, in which he plays one of a group of
young people wrestling with the responsibilities of adult life.
van Groeningen and Perceval shared theatre connections,
but it was seeing the director’s debut feature Steve + Sky
that made Perceval want to work with him. ‘I thought: here
is a guy who is going to say something new.’ Shooting
the film was exhilarating. ‘Everyone had a passion for the
movie,’ he recalls. ‘I think that’s what being a director is
about sometimes. You have to be able to make your whole
The Ardennes
Perceval prepares for his roles alone, letting a character sink
into his consciousness. This proved essential on Bullhead,
since Roskam rehearsed very little. ‘You have to do your
homework, make it grow in yourself, sleep with it and make
it live.’
This contrasted with the experience of working with
van Warmerdam on Borgman, in which Perceval plays a
husband whose wife is drawn into a bizarre power game
with a stranger. ‘He’s completely different from Michaël and
Felix. He is a painter. He tells you how to say the line, where
to look. He’s very technical. You have to give yourself over
to him completely.’
Working with Roskam also revived the idea of filming
Perceval’s first play, The Ardennes. Several directors and
producers had expressed an interest since it was staged in
2003/4, but Roskam was more committed. He suggested
that Perceval should develop the script, which he did at the
Binger Writers’ Lab in Amsterdam.
The plot involves two brothers, with the younger trying to
Borgman
people
cast and crew enthusiastic. You have to light a fire, and Felix
does that.’
He had a similar feeling about Michaël R. Roskam after
seeing his short film Carlo. ‘I thought: Wow! For the first
time there’s someone in this country who can do it, who
has this grimy but still funny tone.’ He followed Roskam’s
progress and little persuasion was needed when the call
came to audition for Bullhead. ‘I knew this would be a great
film.’
talk the older out of his criminal tendencies on a trip to
the countryside. The older brother has other things on his
mind. Adapting this for the big screen meant opening up
the claustrophobic setting of the play into something closer
to a road movie. ‘The core of the play was good, but there
was not enough story,’ he admits. ‘I found that by digging
into the characters’ histories.’
Once the Bullhead effect kicked in, however, it looked as
if The Ardennes might be put on hold. Roskam remained
committed, but rather than wait for his schedule to clear they
agreed to bring in another director. Perceval thought doing
it himself, but was concerned about his lack of experience.
‘Directing my own movie is another of my dreams, but first I
need to make some shorts and get some skills.’
Instead they chose Robin Pront, who had already worked
with Perceval on the short films Plan B and Injury Time.
‘He is a very intuitive director and very talented,’ Perceval
says. ‘He’s still very young, but we all believe in him.’ As well
as Perceval, the cast is likely to include Schoenaerts and
Jan Bijvoet, who plays the mysterious stranger in Borgman.
The schedule for shooting The Ardennes still depends
on lining up everyone’s diaries. In the meantime Perceval
is preparing to act in Plan Bart, a romantic comedy from
Roel Mondelaers, followed by Paradise Trips by
Raf Reyntjens, billed as one man’s journey into
contemporary psychedelic culture. Meanwhile another of
his plays, Liebling, is set to become the feature debut of
rising young cinematographer David Williamson and his
co-director Jozefien Schepers, although this time Perceval
is neither acting nor writing for the production. 
Bullhead
Injury Time
With Friends Like These
‘Jeroen lives to act. He breathes it. He is not scared to show his insecurities
and incorporate these into his acting. For me he’s at his best when playing on
that vulnerability. But he can do anything. He works hard and, besides being
an actor he’s also a gifted musician and writer. So he’s a true storyteller who
brings along a lot of ideas’ – Felix van Groeningen
5
6
i
-opener
nymPHomanIaC
Lars von Trier’s nymphomaniac stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as a
self-diagnosed sex addict, recounting her erotic journey through
life to a man who has found her slumped in an alley, badly beaten.
Through Flemish co-producer Bert Hamelinck, of Caviar in Brussels,
the film was able to draw on support from VAF’s Film Fund and the
Belgian Tax Shelter. von Trier and his team shot several scenes in
Flanders, particularly in the city of Ghent. Meanwhile Flemish actors
Michaël Pas, Lien van De kelder and Ivan Pecnik will appear in
supporting roles. Due for release later in 2013, international sales are
handled by TrustNordisk. 
7
8
From Mont
Blanc to
CanneS
GILLeS COuLIeR’S MONT BLANC, THe
YOuNG DIReCTOR’S SeCOND SHORT FILM
TO SCReeN IN CANNeS, IS THe STORY
OF A LAST WISH AND THe LINGeRING
HOSTILITY BeTWeeN FATHeR AND SON. AS
THeY TRAveL BACk FROM A THWARTeD
JOuRNeY TO MAke THe FATHeR'S WISH
COMe TRue, ALL THe SON'S eMOTIONS
COMe TO THe SuRFACe.
TexT Ian Mundell
PORTRAIT krIs dewItte
Inspiration for the Cannes Shorts competition selected film
came from the director's own life, although he is quick to
point out that he has a great relationship with his own father.
But there was a time in his teens when things were not so
smooth, and he wondered how it would be if that feeling had
endured. 'What if you hate the man who is your father, for
the rest of your life?'
His way into the story was to imagine the father making a
dying wish, asking to be taken back to a place of better
family memories. 'As a son, I don't think you could say no.
You would have to do it. But that doesn't make everything
alright.'
Initially conceived as a road trip to the Alps, Coulier found
that the story only came alive after father and son had
reached the mountains. 'Once they arrive at Mont Blanc,
or rather at the wrong place, you start to wonder what will
happen next, when they drive back,' he says. This is when
the characters' relationship is stripped bare. 'Not a lot is
said, but in that way many things are said. In that moment,
the fact that they don't talk is what is interesting'.
From the outset, Coulier had Wim Willaert in mind for the
role of the son, having worked with the actor on his student
shorts Iceland and Paroles. 'I love the way he acts. I really
believe his performances.'
Finding someone to play the father was harder, since he
did not want to cast a well-known face. 'I always have a
problem when I see the actor rather than the character,' he
explains. So he looked for people with the right presence,
regardless of their acting experience. When he saw a
picture of Jean-Pierre Lauwers, he knew this was the one.
'He looks so innocent, so likeable. He has an old, lived-in
face... but on the other hand you never know what a person
has done in his life.'
This ambiguity is important, and in the film Coulier is careful
not to reveal exactly what has driven father and son apart.
'You don't need the back story. When you look in his eyes
you see a good person, but you have the feeling that
something has happened. You ask: why would you hate
your father?'
De Wereldvrede (The World Peace) with actor
Gilles De Schryver, best known internationally for Come
As You Are. His first project will be to produce and
direct Bevergem, a nine-episode Tv series for Belgian
public Tv. 'It's a comedy. I describe it as a mix between
Breaking Bad and Lilyhammer.'
Meanwhile he is working on his first feature film, Cargo,
about a family fishing business that turns bad in harsh
economic times. 'It's the story of three brothers who are
extremely different, trying to work towards the same goal,
but who really fuck it up.' Coulier is collaborating on the
script with Tom Dupont, co-writer of Peter Monsaert's
Offline. He hopes to cast Willaert and Sam Louwyck as two
of the brothers. 
De Wereldvrede
Shooting Mont Blanc took a week, travelling between
locations in Austria, France and Belgium. 'It was also very
interesting for us, with a little team, to experience their
journey.'
That team included David Williamson, who has been director
of photography on all of Coulier's films. 'David and I started
in the same year at Sint-Lukas film school and we graduated
in the same year. I've always done his photography and he's
always done mine. In the first place, I love his images, but
the other good thing is that we don't need to talk a lot on
set. I can really give all my time to the actors rather than
worry about on the technical side.'
This is Coulier's first professional production, supported by
the vAF Wildcard award won for Iceland. He was coached
in the project by Felix van Groeningen (The Misfortunates,
The Broken Circle Breakdown) and the film was produced by
Dirk Impens of Menuet. 'Mont Blanc's selection at Cannes
is not only beautiful for me, but it's also a big endorsement
for the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (vAF),' Coulier says. 'It
proves that the vAF Wildcards work and that we are really
on the right track in Flanders.' In fact it’s not his first Cannes
selection. Coulier’s 2010 student short, Iceland, was shown
in the Cinéfondation competition.
The future already looks busy for the young director. He has
recently set up his own production company,
Mont Blanc
shor t i ssimo
Mont Blanc
nter view
i
roCCo
and
tHe BrOtHers
'MARINA, MARINA, MARINA / TI vOGLIO AL PIu PReSTO SPOSAR.' THe CHORuS OF ‘MARINA’,
AN INTeRNATIONAL HIT FOR ROCCO GRANATA IN THe eARLY 60 S, SPeAkS THuS ABOuT
MARRIAGe. THe DARDeNNe BROTHeRS AND STIJN CONINx HAve COMe TOGeTHeR TO
ReCOuNT THe eARLY YeARS OF ROCCO GRANATA IN MArInA, AND TO TuRN HIS POPuLAR
HIT INTO A HYMN IN PRAISe OF IMMIGRATION.
TexT aleX MassOn
PORTRAIT danny wIlleMs
Marina
The alliance between Stijn Coninx and the Dardenne
brothers, that also goes back some time. 'We met Stijn at
the beginning of the 90s. Dirk Impens, one of his producers,
had worked on Je pense à vous, our second film, and we
became co-producers of Daens. Since then, we have
always followed what Stijn was doing. He talked to us about
Marina, sent us the script, and we took it from there. But
we already had a link with the project, since we used Rocco
Granata's song on the soundtrack of The Promise.'
The new film by Stijn Coninx deals with Granata's youth,
when he emigrated from Calabria to Belgium at the end of
the 1940s to be reunited with his father, a coal miner. But it
was the universal side of the story rather than its biographical
details that inspired the director. 'In fact, when Rocco called
me at the beginning of 2007 I was thinking of other projects,
notably a film on immigration and undocumented migrants.
He was thinking about writing his memoirs and wanted to
know if I was interested in making a documentary about his
life. At our tenth meeting, I told him that what interested me
in his career was the universal story of a child who becomes
a foreigner. It is only chance that turns him into a successful
singer. We never assumed that the whole world knew Rocco
Granata. It would be dishonest to sell it that way. Besides,
we quickly decided to call the film Marina and not Rocco.
I couldn't see the point of making a film about a celebrity,
although at a certain moment we also asked ourselves, why
not tell the story of Salvatore Adamo? He is much better
known around the world than Rocco and their career paths
are quite similar. But the difference is that Adamo's father
agreed that his son should go into show business, so there
wasn't that family conflict that existed between Rocco and
his father.'
part of Belgian history
A story of father and son, the working class... a connection
to the cinema of the Dardenne brothers starts to become
clear. Jean-Pierre Dardenne: 'Inevitably we were attracted
to Marina because of its themes, but also because it was
Stijn. It was because he proposed it that we were interested
in reading the script, and after that we noticed certain
similarities, not the other way around.'
'evidently it means something that we were touched by
the relationship between Rocco and his father,’ Luc adds.
‘And then, without being explicit, the film also recounts a
part of Belgian history. Of all the films that we produce, we
are most interested in those that have something to say
about our country. In a way Marina also does that by being
a co-production between Wallonia and Flanders. Daens was
11
nter view
i
12
'Simply making a period drama
doesn't interest me. It must be
linked to current events, to the
present, otherwise it is nothing but
a reconstruction, which makes it
difficult for the audience to identify
with, and to see in it the smallest
details of their daily lives. that has
always been my motivation for
making films’ – Stijn Coninx
already a sort of collaborative exchange between the two
communities. However, be it 20 years ago or today, there
is nothing intentional in that. Beyond any ideas of language,
it's a personal story that connects us to Stijn. We met him,
he interested us, we interested him and that's all. And in
any case, the story of immigrant miners in Belgium is the
same whether they came to Flanders or Wallonia. When we
sent the script to the secretary of the French-speaking film
commission, he responded enthusiastically because the
story spoke to him as a Belgian.'
Stijn agrees: 'My films, like those of Jean-Pierre and Luc, are
never Manichean, nor are they all black or all white. That's
probably down to our characters: that desire to show the
complexity of humanity through its different aspects and,
above all, not to rush to judgement. Marina is more than just
the story of Rocco Granata. That's why I wanted to draw
a parallel between the relationship he has with his father
and that linking the grocer and his daughter, because in its
own way this shows another facet of our country. Above all
Rocco's story has allowed me to tell people that there was
a time when foreigners were asked to come here to do jobs
we did not want to do ourselves, and that this contributed
to making Belgium a wealthier place.'
contemporary feelings
Without doubt, Coninx and the Dardennes are on the
same wavelength, and the director is full of praise for his
producers. 'Co-producers!' they say, by way of correction,
'the real producer is Peter Bouckaert. We believe strongly in
the project, but it was he who said "off we go!". Our work
consisted of working together with the director, telling him
"well, that isn't entirely clear" or "that seems a little bit long"
but not "you have to do it that way". It's all a question of
good will and knowing how to listen to one another. We
collaborate with auteurs; we are not there to replace them.
If you work with people who have no point of view, evidently
yours will tend to take over, but that doesn't interest us. We
wouldn't be able to make a film like Daens, with all those
extras and costumes. But Stijn knows how.'
Coninx also knows how to make Marina resonate beyond
its evocation of the 1950s. 'Simply making a period drama
doesn't interest me,’ he explains. ‘It must be linked to
current events, to the present, otherwise it is nothing but a
reconstruction, which makes it difficult for the audience to
identify with, and to see in it the smallest details of their daily
lives. That has always been my motivation for making films.
I've got better things to do than reconstruct the 1950s or the
past simply for the pleasure of it (laughs). There are elements
WorDS anD MuSiC
Marina
of Marina that come from things people have told me about
their lives now and not from Rocco's life. That was one of
the starting points for the film: to incorporate contemporary
feelings and pre-occupations into the appearance of the
1950s. That also comes through in respecting Rocco's
mother tongue. A good deal of Marina is in Italian, because
that corresponds to one of the ideas in the film that remains
current: how can we communicate in life when we speak
different languages?'
'Marina inevitably says something to me about immigration
today: this boy who leaves behind his country, his childhood,
always thinking that he will return,’ explains Luc. ‘Then there
is the fact that he becomes someone else, going against
his roots and his father's values. It's very painful for both of
them to clash over the dream they share of going back to
Italy. There is something tragic in this relationship between
this father who has sacrificed himself for his family and this
son who takes another path. One of the things that touched
us deeply in the scenario is that, as well as pushing towards
a reconciliation of father and son, the international success
of 'Marina' is also a sort of reconciliation with immigration.
When Rocco sang this Italian song in New York, all the
immigrants, whether they were Italians in Belgium, Canada
or elsewhere, were with him. In a way this success justified
immigration. It's a victory for the people who have worked
hard, in terrible conditions, without any kind of social
recognition.' 
Before Marina, there was Sister Smile, the previous film
of Stijn Coninx, another story linked to an enormously
successful popular song. Jean-Pierre Dardenne:
'I like it that Marina is also a tribute to popular song.
even if we disparage it sometimes, it remains an art
and a form of work, a craft that endures. knowing
how to play the accordion like Rocco or his father,
even to sing, isn't something you pick up over night.'
More than this common interest in music, Marina and
Sister Smile seem to be linked by the insight Coninx
has into his characters, both of whom take control
of their own destinies. 'Making a film is about being
headstrong, about believing in a story. Characters
such as Sister Smile and Rocco are perfect for that.
Now I think that there are enormous differences
between the two characters: Rocco always had his
father's voice in his ear, saying: "you have to have a
dream to get on in life." It's a way to surpass oneself
when one is dogged by bad luck.'
Before finding out whether or not the public will
make Marina a success, there was one spectator in
particular who had to be convinced: Rocco Granata.
Stijn is already reassured on this point. 'I think he
was afraid that Marina would be like other biopics of
singers. He came to a screening with his wife and his
two children, and I was struck by seeing their sons
sit either side of them, as if the children were ready
to console their parents in case of disappointment.
After the screening, he took me to one side because
a detail was bothering him: in one scene, you see a
record label that is not right. I said to myself that the
rest must have been alright for him (laughs).'
StIJn ConInX (°1957)*
(2013) - Marina
(2009) - SiSter SMile
(2007) - to Walk again
(2003) - FurtHer tHan tHe Moon
(1998) - WHen tHe ligHt CoMeS
(1990) - koko Flanel
(1987) - HeCtor
* selected filmography
13
14
Hendrik verthé (l) and kobe van Steenberghe (r)
Call t H e a te a M
HeNDRIk veRTHé AND kOBe vAN STeeNBeRGHe DIDN'T WANT TO HANG AROuND
AFTeR FILM SCHOOL, SO THeY SeT uP THeIR OWN COMPANY, A TeAM PRODuCTIONS.
FOuR YeARS ON THeY've PRODuCeD SeveRAL SHORTS, INCLuDING THe MuLTI-AWARD
WINNING LAND OF THe HeROeS, AND THeY HAve JuST WRAPPeD SHOOTING ON THeIR
FIRST FeATuRe PRODuCTION, IMAge.
TexT Ian Mundell
The pair met at the RITS film school in Brussels and worked
together on several projects, including their respective
graduation films. 'At the end Hendrik said: let's start a
company. And I said: that's a great idea,' recalls van
Steenberghe. 'It was a bit naive, maybe, but we didn't want
to work all the time on little jobs and then only do something
10 years later. We decided just to do it ourselves, start the
company and see how it goes.'
A decisive step was buying a Red digital camera. 'We were
able to shoot short films on very small budgets because we
had our own equipment and did everything in-house, such
PORTRAIT Bart dewaele
as the editing and the grading,' says van Steenberghe.
'That way you can see all the money on screen.'
As a production team, they have complementary interests
and skills. Verthé handles the financial side and acts
as line producer when projects are under way, while
van Steenberghe takes on a role as creative producer,
which covers everything from being script consultant to
assistant director on set and handling colour grading in
post-production.
Their first projects came from people they had known at film
school. First there was Pim Algoed with the extravagantly
i
nter view
titled short How to enrich Yourself By Driving Women Into
emotional and Financial Bankruptcy, then a documentary
by Bram Conjaerts, called The Circle, about the Large
Hadron Collider, a massive nuclear physics experiment
taking place underground on the Swiss-French border.
every summer for four years Conjaerts returned to the area
to trace the 27km path of the experiment over ground,
talking to people he met along the way about its goal of
unravelling the secrets of the universe. The resulting film
has just been completed and screened this spring at Hot
Docs in Toronto and the Doxa Documentary Film Festival
in vancouver.
Next came Sahim Omar kalifa's Land of the Heroes, a
darkly comic tale of three Iraqi kids playing at 'Saddam'
while their mothers are busy cleaning weapons that the
children have collected from near-by battlefields. Selected
at more than 100 film festivals around the world it has
gathered a score of awards, including Best Short in the
Berlin Film Festival's Generation programme.
VAF Wildcards
Algoed, Conjaerts and kalifa are all past winners of vAF
Wildcard awards for their student films. By taking them
on, a team has been able to build a portfolio of short and
medium-length films by talented young directors and to get
an inside track on funding.
verthé sees an advantage in having young directors and
producers working together. 'We are working at the same
level, whereas if they go to a bigger producer, as a young
director they are always just a beginner.' And when the
films succeed, it shows that the young producers know
what they are doing. 'After Land of the Heroes I think we
proved that,' says van Steenberghe.
Wildcard awards are generally meant to support a short film,
establishing a young director's professional credentials,
but recent winners Adil el Arbi and Bilall Fallah have bigger
ambitions. They decided to make a feature, Image. 'That's
a little bit what attracts us to them,' says verthé. 'We had
the same thing, that after school we said: we are just going
to do it.'
The story concerns eva, a Flemish television journalist
who recruits a young guy of Moroccan origin, Lahbib,
to act as her guide to inner city Brussels. The directors'
The Circle
Land of the Heroes
'We always think: what do we
want to do, what do our directors
want to do, and what is for the
best' – Kobe Van Steenberghe
nter view
i
Image
enthusiasm not only convinced the producers, but it also
attracted some big names to the cast. Laura verlinden
(Ben x, Loft) plays eva, while Geert van Rampelberg
(The Broken Circle Breakdown), Wouter Hendrickx
(The Misfortunates, Oxygen) and Gene Bervoets appear
in supporting roles. Meanwhile Lahbib is played by
Nabil Mallat, one of the stars of their vAF Wild Card winning
short Brothers.
Despite the limited means, the directors set out to make a
film that looks as polished as possible. 'They said: we don't
have any money but we are not going to shoot it handheld. We want to shoot it like a movie should be shot,'
van Steenberghe recalls. 'They wanted tracking shots and
all the camera movements, which was a bit insane because
of the way we had to shoot it, but the crew - and especially
Robrecht Heyvaert, the cinematographer - pulled it off.'
Now editing, the film should be ready early in 2014.
'You could pitch it as a festival film - it's directed by two
Baghdad Messi
Moroccan guys, it's their first film, it's set in the 'hood’ - but
actually it's more of a commercial movie,' says verthé. 'The
production values are very high.'
An additional vote of confidence in its commercial potential
has come through the involvement of Flemish major
eyeworks, which lined up Tax Shelter funding for the project
and will handle domestic distribution. 'The movie will have
the best chance it could have,' says van Steenberghe.
work hard
Looking forward, a team has recently completed a second
short film with Kalifa, once more going to Iraq to shoot a
story that combines kids and conflict. Baghdad Messi is
about a football-mad 10-year-old whose future on the
village team depends on his father's Tv working during a
Barcelona championship match. But getting a TV fixed in
war-torn Iraq is no easy matter.
By now the producers are used to the demands of shooting
in Iraq. 'For a short film we have maybe 11 or 12 shooting
days, where normally it would be five or six,' says Verthé.
'But you really have to relax. You learn that you can only
shoot two scenes a day.'
Now Kalifa is working on his first feature film. This began
as an a team project, but the director wanted to work
with scriptwriter Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem (Oxygen,
Brasserie Romantique) and so it made more sense for
van Rijckeghem to produce as well. A team bears no
grudge. 'It was the right decision,' says van Steenberghe.
'We always think: what do we want to do, what do our
directors want to do, and what is for the best.'
Meanwhile the company has a number of documentaries
in the final stages of editing and post-production. There
are two projects from Ruben vermeersch, a mediumlength documentary called The Applause Man, about
90s cult figure Antoon De Pauw and a documentary titled
What About eric, about a Congolese rapper who lives in the
Flemish backwater town of Izegem.
Then there is a documentary by Jason Boënne (another
vAF Wildcard winner) who is following a trainee matador
in Spain. 'The boy is giving his life for the sport, but it is
something that is not popular any more,' says verthé. 'So
in a way he has chosen the wrong dream.'
The next fiction project will be De vijver (The Pond), a
horror short directed by Jeroen Dumoulein and written by
Michel Sabbe. This will shoot in January.
But before then they are trying something different, taking
on a season of eyeworks’ popular Tv crime drama Vermist
(Missing Persons unit). This involves coming full circle,
since both of them started out as runners on the series,
with van Steenberghe going on to become a regular
assistant director and writer. 'It's a little bit funny that in the
first season we were the trainees, and now he's one of the
directors and I'm the producer,' says verthé. 'Now we can
say to the trainees: you see, if you work hard you will get
there!' 
CorMan oF araBia
The combination of working in Iraq with Sahim Omar
kalifa and stretching a vAF Wildcard budget as far as
it would go to make Image has given a team an idea:
why not make low-budget feature films in the desert?
Although shooting can be challenging, the results are
spectacular. 'The light is beautiful, you have a lot of
texture,' says van Steenberghe. 'All the people, the
faces, the buildings - everything is alive.' In addition,
the films would immediately have an international
dimension.
The idea is to invest money from their own company
rather than tap the subsidy system for this kind of
projects. Budgets would be around €200,000 per
film, with an emphasis on giving new directors and
starting crew members a break rather than making
movies below market rate. 'We would be saying to
young directors: we want to shoot the movie with
you, we can provide you with a very small budget, you
have to write a screenplay that is really commercial...
let's talk about it!' says van Steenberghe.
This is broadly modelled on the American approach
that produced stylish genre films in the 1960s and
1970s and gave early breaks to directors such as
Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. 'It's
Roger Corman, but with good scripts!' says verthé.
On the set of Image
On the set of Land of the Heroes. From left to right: Sahim Omar kalifa,
Zana Gandi, Ahmed Nisret, Jochen Struyf and kobe van Steenberghe
17
INNOVATIVE POST PRODUCTION
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shor t i ssimo
nOrMan
ROBBe veRvAeke’S HIGHLY exPReSSIve ANIMATeD
SHORT norMAn IS SeLeCTeD FOR COMPeTITION
AT THIS YeAR’S ANNeCY INTeRNATIONAL ANIMATeD
FILM FeSTIvAL IN JuNe. PRODuCeD BY CINNeMON
eNTeRTAINMeNT, IT IS THe YOuNG DIReCTOR’S
FIRST PROFeSSIONAL FILM AFTeR GRADuATING IN
2008 FROM THe ROYAL ACADeMY OF FINe ARTS IN
GHeNT.
Norman looks at things too intently. He stares. Then he has to
get even closer. In the street, he crawls on his hands and knees
to scrutinise a shrimp tail discarded on the pavement. In a café,
he follows a man into the toilets just to get a closer look at his
sandaled feet. No wonder people think Norman is weird.
even though it has no dialogue, Robbe vervaeke’s short animation
film norman is highly expressive. each frame is composed with
oil paint on glass, photographed, and then repainted before the
pigment dries. When Norman walks through the streets, the air
around him seems disturbed and buildings register traces of his
passing. When he stares, his emotions are visible in the shifting
paint of his face.
It’s not just the materials in norman that come from the art world.
There is a touch of van Gogh in the swirling textures and the
people who follow Norman’s strange progress resemble those
described by the German expressionists. The suggestion of
isolation and madness couldn’t be stronger, yet it is unclear
from the story whether Norman is a threat to society or merely a
harmless voyeur.  IM
19
The
Queen
of
Czar
Text Ian Mundell
Portrait THOMAS VANHAUTE
THe SeRIeS ONe OF THe MOST AMBITIOuS PROJeCTS IT HAD eveR ATTeMPTeD. IT IS
THe SeCOND MAJOR BRITISH Tv SeRIeS TO SHOOT IN FLANDeRS IN ReCeNT YeARS,
FOLLOWING IN THe FOOTSTePS OF WORLD WAR ONe DRAMA PARADe'S eND. PRODuCeR
euRYDICe GYSeL OF CZAR BeLGIuM PuT TOGeTHeR THe PACkAGe THAT PeRSuADeD
THeM THAT FLANDeRS COuLD DOuBLe FOR 15TH CeNTuRY eNGLAND. AND THeRe'S
MORe: CZAR IS ALSO A CO-PRODuCTION PARTNeR IN ALex vAN WARMeRDAM'S CANNeS
i
COMPeTITION eNTRY BorgMAn.
nter view
WHeN THe BBC ANNOuNCeD THe WHITe QueeN AT THe BeGINNING OF 2012 IT CALLeD
On the set of The White Queen: Rebecca Ferguson (top)
and Faye Marsay (bottom left)
The story of The White Queen is set during the War of the Roses, when competing
dynasties fought for the english throne. Based on the novels by Philippa Gregory,
who also wrote The Other Boleyn Girl, the narrative brings out the important role
played by women in one of the most glamorous periods in english history.
Jan Vrints who put together the finance package for Parade’s end, introduced
eurydice Gysel to series producers Company Pictures. At that point several
countries were being considered for shooting the series, including Ireland and
Hungary. The financial advantages of coming to Belgium were clear, but more was
required to make it a contender. ‘They knew about our Tax Shelter and they wanted
to know about locations, so we did two weeks of scouting all over Belgium for
castles and so on,’ Gysel recalls. ‘Because of those locations and the Tax Shelter
they decided to shoot here.’
Outside locations were found around the cities of Bruges and Ghent, while a
studio in Bruges was refitted for interior work on the series. Meanwhile the financial
package was completed, with a Tax Shelter contribution from the BNP Paribas
Fortis Film Fund, co-production funds from Flemish public broadcaster vRT and
support from the vAF Media Fund. A bid has also been placed for the Screen
Flanders fund, which aims to attract foreign co-productions to the region.
Veerle Baetens
The series shot for 120 days, with around 80 people on set every day.
Naturally most of the cast is British. But Flemish actress veerle Baetens
(The Broken Circle Breakdown) also has an important role as Margaret of Anjou,
a formidable French noblewoman who married england's king Henry vI. A number
of smaller parts are also filled by local actors.
21
22
Company Pictures brought its own line producer and, being
new to the country, was cautious about delegating technical
roles to foreign crew. ‘In the beginning I had to fight a little
bit,’ Gysel says. ‘I didn't want it just to be the english coming
over and just using us, and in that way it was sometimes a
tough discussion. But in the end it worked out very well.’
Sound was always going to be handled locally, but as time
went on Flemish crew took on more responsibility in the
camera department, art department and in assistant director
positions. Given the nature of the production, costume was
also an important department. ‘Initially they wanted to bring
everything from england,’ Gysel recalls. ‘Then we made
some costumes here and convinced them we could do it.’
This is Gysel's first experience of a large TV production,
although her background in both feature films and
advertising means that she was not intimidated by the scale.
‘Sometimes the money for one commercial is the same as
for a feature film, only you shoot it in a few days, so in a way
you know how to handle the demands, how to handle the
budgets.’
Czar already has further Tv projects lined up. A second
collaboration with Company Pictures is under discussion.
This will be another literary costume drama, which could
shoot in 2014/5 if everything falls into place. In-house Czar
is developing an idea for a Tv series that it hopes to coproduce with France and Denmark. ‘We want to make
something with international appeal, like Twin Peaks or
The kingdom, something you want to follow,' she says. ‘It
should also be, for the directors, something that is more
intriguing and visually interesting than regular Tv.’
On the set of The White Queen: Max Irons (bottom)
‘our directors demand a lot so
you have to be creative with your
budgets. In the end I'm always
surprised by the results, and that
pushes me to go further’
Czar label
Czar Belgium was created in 1999 by director koen Mortier
as an affiliate of production company Czar Netherlands.
The aim was to give him more creative control in pitching
and making commercials in Belgium, and also to provide a
platform to develop fiction projects. His debut feature film
ex Drummer was completed in 2007, followed in 2010 by
22nd of May.
Meanwhile Czar expanded, attracting like-minded
filmmakers working creatively in advertising and nurturing
occasional fiction and documentary projects.
Gysel was invited on board as a producer in 2000, first
handling advertising and then taking over the fiction
department. In 2010 she became executive producer and
managing director of the whole company.
Advertising remains the bedrock of Czar's business, driven
by the creativity of its directors. ‘They don't see commercials
as just a way of making money,’ Gysel explains. ‘They work
hard and, if they think we need to film in a certain way to
make a better commercial, then they fight for that.' At the
same time Czar helps its directors realise their ambitions in
fiction, beginning with support in developing scripts for short
and feature films, then helping put together a production.
Recent shorts include Rivers Return by Joe vanhoutteghem,
a looping narrative about the cycle of life, which was screened
Koen mortIer
As well as being Czar's founder and one of its main directors, koen Mortier acts as the company's creative producer. ‘In the company
he's the one who reads projects and helps to develop those he recognizes the hand of an author in,’ Gysel says.
He also has two feature projects of his own underway. The first is an adaptation of Haunted, a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, the cult uS
author whose Fight Club was brought to the big screen by David Fincher. Haunted is about 17 writers who commit to a three-month
retreat in the hope that one of them will emerge with the great American novel.
Mortier and Gysel acquired the rights in 2008, but it has been a long journey to secure finance to make the film in the USA. Indus
Media & Entertainment finally bought production rights this year. Mortier has written the script, which is currently being polished by
Brock Norman Brock. ‘We want to have the final version ready for Cannes to sell to distributors, sales agents and especially actors,’
says Gysel. All being well, the film should shoot in the fall or winter of 2013/4.
Meanwhile Mortier has also bought the film rights to Dimitri Verhulst's Monologue of Someone Who Got used to Talking to Herself,
about the mysterious death of a Belgian cycle racer in Senegal. The story is loosely based on the sudden death of one of the biggest
cycling talents Belgium ever generated: Frank vandenbroucke. This will be the second story by verhulst to get the big screen treatment
after Felix van Groeningen's The Misfortunates.
at the Locarno Film Festival in 2012, and Perfect Drug
by Toon Aerts, a genre-bending flight of fancy that was in
competition at this year's Clermont-Ferrand film festival.
Both directors are now thinking about follow-up projects,
with vanhoutteghem working on the script for a feature.
Torino Filmlab
Other projects under way include a short film from
kevin Meul, which will shoot in the summer, to be followed
by his debut feature My First Highway. This dark teenage
movie shows how a young boy learns about love and life in
the cruellest way possible. In 2012 the project was the first
by a Flemish director to be selected for the Torino Filmlab's
prestigious Script & Pitch programme. Meanwhile it received
production support from the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (vAF).
Following in his footsteps is Kenneth Mercken, whose first
feature project Coureur has been selected for the Torino
programme this year. The film explores the life of a young
professional cyclist, driven to use performance enhancing
drugs by the pressure to win. ‘It's about being crazy, doping
and cycling, and not winning,’ Gysel says. ‘It's also about
the relationship between him and his father.’
Alongside Mortier's current projects (see box), Czar's
next big feature production is Waste Land, the third by
Pieter van Hees after Left Bank (2008) and Dirty Mind
(2009). This tells the story of a Brussels cop who becomes
obsessed with a murder in the city's African quarter, letting
it slowly take over both his professional and personal life.
The lead will be taken by Dardenne brothers protégé
Jérémie Renier (The kid with a Bike, Cloclo), who
has learned Dutch in order to play the bilingual role.
Natali Broods (Hotel Swooni) plays his wife. Shooting
started in April, with Bac International on board to handle
international sales.
The company is also involved as a co-production partner
in both Alex van Warmerdam’s Cannes Competition entry
Borgman and etrange couleur des larmes de mon corps by
Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani.
While Gysel's role as a producer is more about the money
than the content of the films, it's the creativity of Czar that
makes the work so rewarding. ‘Our directors demand a lot
so you have to be creative with your budgets. In the end
I'm always surprised by the results, and that pushes me to
go further.’ 
Waste Land (top), Borgman (bottom)
24
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edition française
on
ConnaiT
La
CHanSon
Les Frères Dardenne et Stijn
Coninx se sont associés pour
raconter les jeunes années de
Rocco Granata dans Marina et
faire du tube éponyme un hymne
aux vertus de l'immigration.
PROPOS RECUEILLIS PAR Alex Masson
PHOTO Danny Willems
« Marina, Marina, Marina, Ti voglio al piu
presto sposar ». Le refrain de 'Marina',
tube international de Rocco Granata qui
a bercé le début des années 60, parle
de mariage. L'alliance entre Stijn Coninx
et les Frères Dardenne, quant à elle, ne
date pas d'aujourd'hui. « Nous avons
rencontré Stijn au début des années
90. Dirk Impens, un de ses producteurs,
avait travaillé sur Je pense à vous, notre
second film, et nous sommes nousmêmes devenus coproducteurs de
Daens. Depuis, nous avons toujours
suivi le travail de Stijn. Il nous a parlé
de Marina, nous a envoyé le scénario,
et c'était parti. Il y avait déjà un lien :
la chanson de Rocco Granata figure
dans la bande son de La Promesse ».
Le nouveau film de Stijn Coninx relate
la jeunesse de Granata, un Calabrais
émigré en Belgique à la fin des années 40
pour rejoindre son père mineur de fond.
Au-delà du biopic, c'est la dimension
universelle de cette histoire qui a inspiré
le réalisateur. « Je pensais à d'autres
projets, notamment un film sur les sanspapiers et sur l'immigration, quand début
2007, Rocco m'a appelé. Il envisageait
d'écrire ses mémoires et voulait savoir si
j'étais intéressé par un documentaire sur
sa vie. À notre dixième rencontre, je lui
ai dit que ce qui m'intéressait dans son
parcours, c'est l'histoire universelle d'un
enfant qui devient un étranger. D'ailleurs
on a assez vite décidé d'intituler le film
Marina et non Rocco. Je me suis posé
la question de l'intérêt de faire un film
basé sur une célébrité. Pourquoi ne pas
raconter plutôt l'histoire d'Adamo ? Il
est beaucoup plus connu que Rocco
et leurs parcours sont assez similaires.
La différence est que le père d'Adamo
approuvait le fait que son fils se lance
dans la chanson, du coup il n'y avait pas
la dimension conflictuelle qu'il y a entre
Rocco et le sien ».
des frères, un fils,
son père et un pays
Une histoire de filiation, le monde
ouvrier... une passerelle avec le cinéma
des frères Dardenne s'esquisse. JeanPierre Dardenne : « Le projet Marina
nous a attiré par sa thématique, mais
aussi parce que c'était Stijn. Il nous a
proposé le scénario, on a eu envie de
le lire, et on s'est aperçu de certaines
similitudes. Pas l'inverse. » Luc rajoute
« Mais il n'est évidemment pas anodin
que le rapport entre Rocco et son père
interview
Marina
nous ait touchés. Mine de rien, ce film
raconte aussi un pan de l'histoire de
Belgique. Nous produisons autant que
possible des films qui parlent de notre
pays. Marina est une coproduction
entre Wallons et Flamands. Daens
était déjà un échange collaboratif entre
les deux communautés. Mais ça n'a
rien d'intentionnel, c'est une histoire
personnelle qui nous lie à Stijn. On l'a
rencontré, il s'est intéressé à nous, nous
à lui, tout est là. De toutes façons, cette
histoire de mineurs immigrés en Belgique,
qu'elle se soit passée en Flandre ou en
Wallonie, c'est kif-kif. On a fait lire le
scénario au rapporteur de la commission
francophone, il était enthousiaste parce
que cette histoire lui parlait en tant que
Belge ». Stijn acquiesce : « Les films que
je fais, comme ceux de Jean-Pierre et
Luc, ne sont jamais manichéens, rien
n'est tout noir ni tout blanc. C'est sans
doute dans nos caractères, cette envie
de montrer la complexité de l'espèce
humaine, dans ses différents aspects.
et surtout de ne pas trop vite la juger.
Marina dépasse l'histoire personnelle de
Rocco Granata. Je tenais par exemple
à mettre en parallèle la relation entre
Rocco et son père et celle entre l'épicier
et sa fille, qui évoque une autre facette
de notre pays. Le parcours de Rocco
m'a surtout permis de rappeler qu'il y
a eu une période où on a demandé à
des étrangers de venir ici pour faire des
choses que nous ne voulions plus faire.
et que ça a contribué à la richesse de
la Belgique ». Pas de doute, Coninx et
les Dardenne sont sur la même longueur
d'onde. Le réalisateur ne tarit d'ailleurs
pas d'éloges envers ses producteurs.
« Coproducteurs ! » rectifient Luc et
Jean-Pierre
Dardenne,
« le
vrai
producteur c'est Peter Bouckaert. Nous
étions acquis au projet, mais c'est lui qui
a dit ‘on y va’. Notre travail consiste à
travailler en équipe avec le réalisateur,
à lui dire : ‘Ça, on ne comprend pas
très bien’ ou ‘Ça, ça nous parait un peu
long’. Mais pas ‘Il faut faire comme ça’.
Il faut être à l'écoute. Nous collaborons
avec des auteurs, nous ne sommes pas
là pour les remplacer. Si vous travaillez
avec des gens qui n'ont pas de point de
vue, forcément le vôtre aura tendance
à prendre le dessus. Mais ça ne nous
intéresse pas. On serait incapable de
faire un film comme Daens, avec toute
cette figuration, ces costumes. Stijn, lui,
s'en délecte ».
Il sait aussi faire résonner Marina audelà de son évocation des années
50. « Faire un simple film d'époque
ne m'intéressait pas. Il doit être lié à
l'actualité, au présent, sinon ce n'est
qu'une reconstruction, auquel cas il est
difficile pour le spectateur de s'identifier,
de voir le moindre rapport avec son
interview
quotidien. J'ai autre chose à faire que
reconstituer les années 50 ou le passé
pour le simple plaisir de le faire (rires). Il y
a des éléments dans Marina qui viennent
de ce que des gens m'ont raconté de
leur vie actuelle. C'était un des points
de départ du film : derrière la façade des
années 50, incorporer des émotions,
des préoccupations contemporaines.
Ça passe aussi par le respect de la
langue natale de Rocco. Marina est
en grande partie parlé en Italien, parce
que ça correspond à une des idées du
film qui reste d’actualité : comment
communiquer dans la vie quand on
parle des langues différentes ? ». Luc
Dardenne : « Marina parle forcément de
l'immigration d'aujourd'hui : ce garçon
qui laisse derrière lui son pays, son
enfance, persuadé qu'il y retournera
un jour. Mais il est devenu un autre, en
opposition avec les racines et les valeurs
de son père. C'est très douloureux pour
l'un comme pour l'autre de s'affronter
autour d'un rêve qu'ils avaient en
commun : retourner en Italie. Il y a une
Marina
part de tragique dans la relation entre ce
père qui s'est sacrifié pour sa famille et
ce fils qui prend une autre voie. Une des
choses qui nous touchait beaucoup dans
le scénario, c'est qu'au delà de permettre
une réconciliation entre un père et son
fils, le succès international de ‘Marina’
constitue aussi une réconciliation avec
l'immigration. Quand Rocco chante
cette chanson italienne à New York,
tous les immigrés, qu'ils soient italiens
en Belgique, au Canada ou ailleurs, sont
avec lui. Ce succès a en quelque sorte
rendu justice à l'immigration. C'est une
victoire pour ces gens qui ont travaillé
dur, dans de mauvaises conditions, sans
reconnaissance sociale ».
Marina
paroles et musique
Avant Marina, il y a eu Sœur Sourire,
autre film de Stijn Coninx centré sur
l'histoire d'un énorme tube populaire.
Jean-Pierre Dardenne : « Marina est un
hommage à la chanson populaire, ça me
plaît, car même si on la décrie parfois,
la chanson reste un art et une forme de
travail, d'artisanat, qui perdure. Chanter,
jouer de l'accordéon comme Rocco ou
son père, ne s'apprend pas du jour au
lendemain ». Au-delà de la musique,
Marina et Sœur Sourire ont en commun
le regard que Coninx porte sur ses
personnages, qui prennent tous deux
leur destin en main. « Pour faire un film, il
faut être volontaire, croire à une histoire.
Des personnages comme Sœur Sourire
ou Rocco sont parfaits pour ça. Ceci
dit, il y a d'énormes différences entre
eux : Rocco a toujours à l'esprit les mots
de son père : ‘ Il faut avoir un rêve pour
avancer dans la vie ’. C'est une manière
de se surpasser quand on est poursuivi
par la malchance ».
en attendant de savoir si le public fera
la fête à Marina ou non, il y avait un
premier spectateur à convaincre : Rocco
Granata. Stijn est rassuré sur ce point :
« Sa crainte était que Marina ressemble
à d'autres biopics de chanteurs. Il est
venu à une projection avec sa femme et
ses deux enfants. J'avais l'impression
que les enfants étaient prêts à consoler
leurs parents en cas de déception. Après
la projection, Rocco m'a pris à part car
un détail le chiffonnait : dans une scène,
on voit sur un disque un label qui n'est
pas le bon. Je me suis dit que le reste
devait lui convenir (rires) ».
rencontre
La reine
de Czar
Lorsque la BBC a annoncé la
production de The White Queen
au début de l'année 2012, elle
a décrit la série comme l'un de
ses projets les plus ambitieux.
Il s'agit de la deuxième grande
série télévisée britannique
tournée en Flandre ces dernières
années, après Parade's End, la
série sur le thème de la Première
Guerre mondiale. La productrice
Eurydice Gysel de Czar Belgium a
réuni les arguments nécessaires
pour convaincre la BBC que la
Flandre pourrait être le décor
de l'Angleterre du 15e siècle.
Czar est également l'un des
coproducteurs de Borgman d'Alex
van Warmerdam, en compétition
officielle au Festival de Cannes
cette année.
PAR Ian Mundell
PHOTO Thomas Vanhaute
L’histoire de The White Queen se passe
pendant la Guerre des Deux-Roses,
lorsque des dynasties rivales se sont
battues pour le trône d'Angleterre.
Inspirée des romans de Philippa Gregory,
qui a également écrit Deux sœurs pour
un roi (The Other Boleyn Girl), l'intrigue
met en avant le rôle important que les
femmes ont joué pendant l'une des
périodes les plus prestigieuses de
l'histoire de l'Angleterre.
Jan Vrints, qui a réuni les financements
nécessaires pour Parade's end,
a présenté eurydice Gysel aux
producteurs de série de Company
Pictures. À ce moment-là, plusieurs
pays étaient pressentis pour tourner la
série, dont l'Irlande et la Hongrie. Les
avantages financiers que présentait
la Belgique étaient évidents, mais il
en fallait davantage pour en faire une
véritable concurrente. « Ils étaient au
courant de notre régime fiscal dit de 'Tax
Shelter', et ils voulaient connaître des
lieux potentiels de tournage. Nous avons
donc parcouru la Belgique pendant deux
semaines à la recherche de châteaux,
etc. », se souvient Gysel. « Compte tenu
de ces endroits et de notre régime fiscal
avantageux, ils ont décidé de tourner la
série ici. »
Des lieux de tournage en extérieur ont
été trouvés dans les villes de Bruges et
rencontre
« Nos réalisateurs ont beaucoup
d'exigences, donc il faut faire
preuve de créativité avec le
budget disponible. Au final, je
suis toujours étonnée par les
résultats, et cela me pousse à
aller plus loin »
Sur le plateau de The White Queen en Flandre: Rebecca Ferguson (ci-dessus) et Faye Marsay (dessous)
de Gand, tandis qu'un studio à Bruges a
été aménagé pour les scènes de la série
tournées à l'intérieur. entre-temps, le
budget de la série avait été bouclé, avec
une contribution au titre du Tax Shelter
du BNP Paribas Fortis Film Fund, des
fonds de coproduction de la chaîne
publique flamande VRT et le soutien du
Fonds audiovisuel de Flandre (vAF). une
demande a également été introduite
auprès du fonds Screen Flanders, qui
cherche à attirer des coproductions
étrangères dans la région.
Veerle Baetens
La série a été tournée en 120 jours et près
de 80 personnes étaient présentes tous
les jours sur le tournage. Bien entendu,
la plupart des acteurs sont britanniques,
mais l'actrice flamande Veerle Baetens
(The Broken Circle Breakdown) incarne
un rôle important, celui de Marguerite
d'Anjou, une redoutable noble française,
épouse du roi d'Angleterre Henri vI.
Plusieurs autres petits rôles sont joués
par des acteurs locaux.
Company Pictures a détaché son propre
producteur éxécutif et, vu qu'il s'agissait
de sa première expérience dans le
pays, il a fait preuve de prudence dans
la distribution des fonctions techniques
à des professionnels étrangers. « Au
début, j'ai dû me battre un petit peu »,
indique Gysel. « Je ne voulais pas
simplement que les Anglais débarquent
et nous utilisent, et il a donc parfois fallu
discuter fermement. Mais finalement,
tout s'est très bien passé. »
Il était prévu depuis le début que le
son soit traité localement, mais au fil
du temps, l'équipe flamande a assumé
plus de responsabilités parmi l'équipe
image, l'équipe artistique et au niveau
des postes d’ assistants réalisateurs.
rencontre
Waste Land
Compte tenu de la nature de la
production, l'équipe des costumes était
également importante. « Au début, ils
voulaient tout faire venir d'Angleterre »,
se souvient Gysel. « ensuite, nous avons
réalisé quelques costumes ici et nous les
avons convaincus que nous pouvions
nous en charger. »
Il s'agit de la première expérience de
production télévisée à grande échelle
de Gysel, même si son expérience
en matière de longs métrages et de
publicités fait qu'elle n'a pas été intimidée
par l'ampleur de la tâche. « Parfois, le
budget consacré à une publicité est le
même que celui d'un long métrage, à la
différence que le tournage ne prend que
quelques jours ; on sait donc comment
gérer les exigences et le budget. »
La société de production Czar a déjà
d'autres projets télévisés en attente. une
deuxième collaboration avec Company
Pictures fait l'objet de discussions. Il
s'agira d'une autre série télévisée littéraire
en costumes d'époque, qui pourrait être
tournée en 2014/5 si tous les paramètres
sont réunis. en interne, Czar cherche à
développer un concept de série télévisée
qu'elle espère coproduire avec la France
et le Danemark. « Nous voulons un
projet à vocation internationale, comme
Mystères à Twin Peaks ou L’Hôpital
et ses fantômes (The kingdom), une
série qu'on a envie de suivre », dit-elle.
« Selon les réalisateurs, elle devrait
également être plus intéressante, sur le
plan visuel notamment, que ce qu'on
voit habituellement à la télévision. »
Le label Czar
Czar Belgium a été créée en 1999 par le
réalisateur Koen Mortier en tant que filiale
de la société de production néerlandaise
Czar Netherlands. L'objectif était de lui
donner plus d'influence créative sur le
pitching et sur la réalisation de publicités
en Belgique, et également de mettre
sur pied une plate-forme de production
Borgman
de projets de fiction. Son premier long
métrage, ex Drummer, a été achevé en
2007, suivi, en 2010, par 22nd of May.
Progressivement, Czar s'est développée,
attirant des réalisateurs qui partagent
les mêmes idées et travaillent de façon
créative à la réalisation de publicités et,
occasionnellement, de projets de fictions
et de documentaires.
Gysel a rejoint l'équipe en tant que
productrice en 2000. elle a commencé
par la gestion des productions
publicitaires, pour ensuite diriger le
département des fictions. En 2010, elle
est devenue productrice exécutive et
directrice générale de toute la société.
La publicité reste à la base des activités
de Czar, grâce à la créativité de ses
réalisateurs. « Ils ne voient pas les
publicités seulement comme une façon
de faire de l'argent », explique Gysel. « Ils
travaillent dur et s'ils pensent que nous
devons filmer d'une certaine façon pour
faire une meilleure publicité, ils se battent
pour défendre leur point de vue. »
Parallèlement, Czar aide ses réalisateurs
à concrétiser leurs ambitions dans le
domaine de la fiction, en commençant
par les soutenir dans la rédaction de
scénarios pour de courts et longs
métrages, puis en les aidant à les
produire. Parmi les derniers courts
métrages, citons Rivers Return de
Joe vanhoutteghem, une intrigue en
boucle sur le cycle de la vie, diffusée au
Festival du film de Locarno en 2012, et
Perfect Drug, de Toon Aerts, une œuvre
fantaisiste qui transcende la notion
rencontre
de genre, sélectionné au festival du film
de Clermont-Ferrand de cette année.
Les deux réalisateurs pensent à présent
à des projets de suivi, vanhoutteghem
travaillant au scénario d'un long métrage.
Torino Filmlab
Un court métrage de Kevin Meul figure
parmi les autres projets en cours. Il sera
tourné en été, et sera suivi de son premier
long métrage, My First Highway. Ce film
sombre d'adolescents montre comment
un jeune garçon apprend l'amour et la vie
de la plus cruelle façon. en 2012, le projet
Tournage de The White Queen en Flandre
a été la première œuvre d'un réalisateur
flamand à avoir été sélectionnée pour le
prestigieux programme Script & Pitch du
Torino Filmlab. Entre-temps, il a bénéficié
d'une aide à la production du Fonds
KOEN MORTIER
en plus d'être le fondateur et l'un des
principaux réalisateurs de Czar, koen
Mortier est également le producteur
artistique de la société. « Au sein de la
société, c'est lui qui lit les projets et qui
aide à développer ceux dans lesquels il
distingue l'œuvre d'un auteur », affirme
Gysel.
Il a également deux projets de longs
métrages en cours. Le premier est une
adaptation de A l’estomac (Haunted), un
roman de Chuck Palahniuk, l'auteur culte
américain dont l'ouvrage Fight Club a été
porté au grand écran par David Fincher.
Haunted parle de 17 auteurs qui décident
audiovisuel de Flandre (vAF).
kenneth Mercken poursuit sur la même
voie. Son premier long métrage, Coureur,
a en effet été sélectionné pour le
programme du festival de Turin de cette
année. Le film présente la vie d'un jeune
coureur cycliste professionnel, incité à
utiliser des substances pour améliorer ses
performances et gagner. « Cela parle de
la folie, de la drogue et du cyclisme, mais
sans la victoire », explique Gysel. « Cela
traite également de la relation entre son
père et lui. »
en plus des projets de Mortier en cours (voir
encadré), la prochaine grande production
de Czar est Waste Land, le troisième long
métrage de Pieter van Hees, après Left
Bank (2008) et Dirty Mind (2009). Le film
raconte l'histoire d'un policier bruxellois
obsédé par un meurtre survenu dans le
quartier africain de la ville, et qui finit par
laisser celui-ci submerger progressivement
sa vie tant professionnelle que privée. Le
rôle principal sera assuré par le protégé
des frères Dardenne, Jérémie Renier
(Le Gamin au vélo, Cloclo), qui a appris
à parler néerlandais pour pouvoir jouer
son rôle bilingue. Natali Broods (Hotel
Swooni) incarne sa femme. Le tournage a
commencé début avril. Bac International
se chargera des ventes internationales.
La
société
participe
également
en tant que coproductrice du film
d'Alex van Warmerdam, Borgman, en
compétition officielle à Cannes, et du film
étrange couleur des larmes de mon corps
d'Hélène Cattet et Bruno Forzani.
Si le rôle de Gysel en tant que productrice
consiste davantage à gérer l'aspect
financier que le contenu des films, c'est la
créativité de Czar qui rend le travail aussi
gratifiant. « Nos réalisateurs ont beaucoup
d'exigences, donc il faut faire preuve
de créativité avec le budget disponible.
Au final, je suis toujours étonnée par les
résultats, et cela me pousse à aller plus
loin ».
de partir en retraite pendant trois mois
dans l'espoir que l'un d'eux écrive le
grand roman américain.
Mortier et Gysel ont obtenu les droits de
l'œuvre en 2008, mais la réunion des
financements nécessaires pour tourner
le film aux États-Unis aura demandé
beaucoup de temps. Indus Media &
Entertainment ont finalement acheté les
droits de production cette année. Mortier
a écrit le scénario, qui est actuellement
finalisé par Brock Norman Brock.
« Nous voulons que la version finale soit
prête pour Cannes pour la vendre aux
distributeurs, aux agents commerciaux
et surtout aux acteurs », indique Gysel.
Si tout va bien, le film devrait être tourné
en automne ou en hiver 2013/4.
entre-temps, Mortier a également
acheté les droits de l'adaptation
cinématographique
du
livre
de
Dimitri verhulst, Monologue of Someone
Who Got used to Talking to Herself, qui
traite de la mort mystérieuse d'un coureur
cycliste belge au Sénégal. L'histoire
s'inspire quelque peu de la mort soudaine
de l'un des plus grands coureurs cyclistes
que la Belgique ait jamais connus :
Frank vandenbroucke. Ce sera la
deuxième fois qu'un ouvrage de verhulst
sera porté au grand écran, après The
Misfortunates, de Felix van Groeningen.
Max Irons dans The White Queen
ShortiSSimo
norman
Le court métrage d’animation
Norman de Robbe Vervaeke
est en compétition au Festival
international du film d’animation
d'Annecy qui se déroule en juin.
Produit par Cinnamon
Entertainment, il s'agit du
premier film professionnel de
Vervaeke, depuis que ce dernier
a obtenu son diplôme en 2008 à
la KASK, l'Académie royale des
Beaux-Arts de Gand.
Norman observe les choses trop
attentivement. Il les regarde fixement.
ensuite, il doit encore s'en rapprocher.
Dans la rue, il rampe à quatre pattes
pour examiner la queue d'une crevette
jetée sur le trottoir. Dans un café, il suit
un homme jusqu'aux toilettes juste pour
regarder de plus près son pied dans
une sandale. Pas étonnant que les gens
trouvent que Norman est étrange.
Même sans dialogue, le court métrage
d'animation Norman de Robbe vervaeke
est très expressif. Chaque image se
compose d'une peinture à l'huile sur
verre, photographiée, puis repeinte
avant que les pigments ne sèchent.
Quand Norman parcourt les rues, l'air
qui l'entoure semble troublé et les
bâtiments gardent une trace de son
passage. Quand il regarde fixement les
choses, ses émotions sont visibles dans
la peinture changeante de son visage.
Les matériaux de Norman ne sont
pas seuls à venir du monde de l'art.
On retrouve une touche de van Gogh
dans les textures tourbillonnantes, et
les personnages qui suivent le parcours
étrange de Norman ressemblent à
ceux décrits par les expressionnistes
allemands. L'évocation de l'isolement et
de la folie ne pourrait être plus forte, et
pourtant, l'histoire ne dit pas clairement
si Norman constitue une menace pour
la société ou s'il est simplement un
voyeur inoffensif.
Par Ian Mundell
Martin Scorsese
expo
• Joseph Plateau Awards Competition
• Films from around the world
• Belgian cinema today
• Focus on:
- independent cinema
- American paranoia
• Out of the box: the best television drama on the big screen
• Film music concerts
w i ldcard
34
WIld
at Heart
Ian Mundell TALkS TO THe LATeST BATCH OF vAF WILDCARD LAuReATeS: SIx
ReCeNTLY GRADuATeD FILMMAkeRS, SeLeCTeD BY A JuRY, WHO ReCeIve BeTWeeN
€25,000 AND €60,000 PLuS COACHING FROM THe FLANDeRS AuDIOvISuAL FuND
(vAF) TO MAke THeIR FIRST ASSIGNMeNT IN THe ReAL WORLD. ALL SIx vAF WILD
CARD WINNING SHORTS WILL ALSO Be SHOWN AS PART OF THIS YeAR'S SHORT
FILM CORNeR IN CANNeS.
Michael Van ostade
emilie Verhamme
Aad Verstraelen
Bram Cartigny
Jeroen Broeckx
Hans galle
w i ldcard
30m 3
lIttle ryan
ALL HuMAN LIFe CAN Be FOuND IN THe MODeST
30M 3 SPACe OF THe LOCk-uP GARAGe, FROM
DINNeR PARTIeS TO PING-PONG, FROM BAND
PRACTICe TO TAxIDeRMY.
LITTLe RYAN LIveS ON TOP OF AN AIR TRAFFIC
CONTROL TOWeR AND DReAMS OF FLYING AWAY.
BuT He IS A YOuNG BIRD AND HASN'T QuITe GOT
THe kNACk OF FLYING.
Curiosity inspired Jeroen Broeckx to investigate the secret
life of garages. 'When I used to ride around on my bike I
always rode a bit slower to see what was inside,' he recalls.
'I found what happened in all these garages a bit poetic.
People do everything but park a car in them.'
He started out by asking friends and family whether they
knew of anyone who used their garage in an unusual way.
Then, as the project gathered speed, he contacted local
newspapers, radio and Tv stations, who put out requests
for suggestions. In the end he visited around 50 garages
before making a selection. 'I think that everyone in Flanders
knows someone with a strange garage.'
After such an intensive research period, the shooting was
relatively straightforward. He visited roughly two garages a
day over a period of two weeks, filming what was going on.
'Always opening the door, closing the door, from the inside,
from the outside,' he recalls. 'It was a very simple concept.'
And although he interviewed the garage owners, he decided
to leave that material to one side. 'I discovered that the
garages themselves say a lot about these people,' he says.
'It was stronger without explaining what they were doing.'
Instead, he asked a friend to compose music to match the
feeling of the images; at one point in the film you can see
her playing the score (where else) in a garage.
Since graduating from the RITS film school in Brussels,
Broeckx has been working for Tv production company
Woestijnvis, doing reports for topical entertainment show
Man Bites Dog. He will start looking for inspiration for his
next documentary in the months to come. 'It will be similar
in style, but not in subject. Something deeper, about
society,' he says.
When birds take their first flight, they risk their lives. Yet
they have to do it. 'That's a little bit the moral of my
story,' explains Aad verstraelen. 'If you want to achieve
something in life, if you have a dream, you have to take a
risk and conquer your fears.'
From that starting point he came up with the novel setting
of an airport, the cheeky name Little Ryan and a classic
cartoon conflict with an air traffic controller. 'It's a feelgood movie,' he says. 'I want the audience to follow the
story and enjoy what they see on the screen.'
In order to do that he adopted a traditional style. 'I grew
up with American animation. It's a little bit commercial,
but I like that style and it worked with my script,' he says.
'It had to be understandable, colourful and with simple
characters, but still appealing.'
His training at the katholieke Hogeschool Limburg had
been in 2D animation, but he made the switch to 3D
computer animation for his graduation project. That
meant learning new software skills, but it was worth it.
'3D animation has always been more interesting for me,
so I chose to specialise. There's also more work in 3D
animation, so I wanted to present myself in that way to the
outside world.'
The move paid off and since graduating verstraelen
has been working at Walking The Dog, a Brussels
animation studio currently busy on the French feature film
La Mécanique du Cœur (Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock
Heart). When that assignment ends in the summer, he will
think about his own follow-up project. 'I want to take that
experience with me to make my own film, and take it to a
much higher level.'
Jeroen BroeCkx I DoCuMentary, 18’
aad VerStraelen I aniMation, 4’
35
w i ldcard
36
Maturing
aS a tree
nIGredo
A FILMMAkeR TeLLS A FRIeND ABOuT THe MOvIe He
IS TRYING TO MAke, AND HOW He keePS GeTTING
DISTRACTeD BY RANDOM BuT BeAuTIFuL IMAGeS
THAT DON'T FIT INTO THe PLAN.
SARAH'S TeeNAGe SON HAS DIeD IN AN ACCIDeNT,
BuT THe kNOWLeDGe HASN'T ReGISTeReD YeT. AS
SHe MOveS AROuND THe FAMILY HOMe, SIGNS OF
THe PAIN TO COMe GATHeR AROuND HeR.
Hans Galle's experimental film Maturing as a Tree is a
reaction to the way he had been taught at KASK, the film
school in Ghent. 'Because we were all trained in professional
filmmaking, I felt that we were following a model,' he says.
'Sometimes it's a good thing to question that.'
His previous attempts to make conventional short fiction
films had certainly been unsatisfactory. 'I still wanted to work
with that material, but I decided to approach it in another
way,' he explains. 'I wanted to create flexibility, a way that
anything that happened or anything that I produced was
useable.'
Images from past projects, fragments of script and video
messages from people wanting to be in his films all went into
the mix, along with other sequences filmed on trains, in lifts
and in the countryside using the cameras in mobile devices.
Then he recorded himself explaining to a friend what he
was doing, including his indecision and susceptibility to
distraction.
'I was looking for a way to connect everything and when
I had the voice-over I knew that it would all fall into place
for the spectator. That was kind of exciting.' The result is a
portrait of the filmmaker at work - or not at work, depending
how you look at it - in which the beauty of chance images
finally wins through.
Galle is not yet sure how he intends to use the vAF
Wildcard award, nor what kind of films he wants to make
in the future. 'I'm sure that I want to find this liberty in any
project that I do, but it doesn't mean that it needs to be
filmed on an iPad,' he says. 'In this case it was the right
answer.'
Michael van Ostade was drawn to loss as a universal
theme, but decided to explore an aspect of it rarely touched
on in films. 'I wanted to know what happens in that really
short period just after you've heard something bad has
happened,' he explains.
Focusing on this time of denial meant getting a controlled
performance from lead actress Ina Geerts. 'I wanted her to
be very cold and distant,' he says. Meanwhile, events such
as a bird crashing into a window (a tricky special effect)
show that death is close. 'A lot of other things try to wake
her up to the fact that something has happened. It is only
at the end of the movie that she finally breaks.'
He chose to film in a wide-screen, cinematic way, which
meant paying more attention to locations, lighting and set
dressing. 'I love the fact that my characters can disappear
into the decor,' he says. This was time consuming, but also
a boon. 'It gave us time to figure out how Ina would move
throughout the scene,' he says. 'I want the framing to be
perfect and all the space to be used.'
Nigredo was van Ostade's bachelor project at Sint-Lukas
film school in Brussels.
Now he's working on his graduation film, Songs from the
Outside, described as a fantastical science fiction musical.
His inspiration comes from films such as Punch Drunk Love
and Close encounters of the Third kind, with its famous
five-note alien message. 'I love this way of using music in a
narrative sense, so the movie will be built on that. It won't
be Les Misérables.' Beyond that, he already has ideas
about how his vAF Wildcard award project should look.
'It will be Bullhead, but with a Twilight Zone twist.'
HanS Galle I experiMental, 23’
mICHael Van oStade I FiCtion, 23’
w i ldcard
Pater FamIlIaS
tSJernoByl
HeartS
WHeN BRAM CARTIGNY WAS A SMALL BOY HIS
FATHeR LeFT THe FAMILY WITHOuT exPLANATION.
NOW ABOuT TO LeAve HOMe HIMSeLF, THe
DIReCTOR DeLveS INTO A FAMILY SeCReT TO ReveAL
A PeRSONAL TRAGeDY. OR PeRHAPS NOT.
TeeNAGeRS JuLeS AND ADRIeN RevISIT THeIR OLD
HOMe, ONLY TO FIND THe NeW OWNeRS kNOCkING
DOWN WALLS. ALTHOuGH PeRFeCTLY POLITe, THe
YOuNGSTeRS SeeM IN NO HuRRY TO LeAve, TO
THe DISCOMFORT OF ALL CONCeRNeD.
Cartigny's aim is to nudge viewers into questioning the
constant stream of images presented to them as true. 'I think
it's dangerous that people don't think about what they see,'
he explains, 'so the idea was to write a personal story where
I deceive the audience. It's a dangerous line to cross, but I
wanted to see how far I could go.'
His family was happy to cooperate, even though the film
presents a rather lurid picture of their lives. 'I explained what
I wanted to do and they said it was no problem,' Cartigny
says.
Meanwhile the film had to look the part. 'It is kind of clichéd,
but that's what convinces the audience that it is a genuine
documentary.' And although the quest for his father is false,
there is a thread of genuine emotion running through the film.
'The movie is also about loss, and there are some true stories
in there.'
Placing the film in a category still causes Cartigny some
difficulty. 'If I say it's fiction, a lot of what I want to make clear
to people is lost, but if I say it's a documentary I'm kind of
lying,' he says. 'It should be watched as a movie, not as
fiction or documentary per se.'
He intends to move more towards genuine documentary
once he graduates from Sint-Lukas film school in Brussels.
Before then he has to complete his master project, which
once again lies between documentary and fiction. Over the
course of a night, it follows three young men making their way
in business, one of whom is already questioning his goals
and expectations. 'They are real, and they play themselves in
a fictional story,' says Cartigny. 'So it's still on the borderline.'
Tsjernobyl Hearts is a film about the way social codes are
embedded in society. 'I wanted to explore that on a physical
level,' explains emilie verhamme. 'I started with the concept
of boundaries: if my property ends here, at a certain point,
then your property starts there. But can we also push those
boundaries?'
Although the concept of unwanted visitors has a long
and disturbing history in cinema - think of Funny Games
- verhamme did not want to go to extremes. Her idea was
to create a situation of social unease rather than menace.
'The threat in underneath, it's unconscious.'
She also built boundaries into the way the film was shot,
drawing up a Dogme-style list of rules: only one lens could
be used, with available light and no focus puller. Then it
was up to cameraman Michael van Ostade (a vAF Wildcard
winner in his own right) to work out how to respond.
'I wanted Michael to search for the boundaries that were
there and to cross those boundaries, or not.'
She also worked with the actors in a way that built unease.
'I would tell something to one actor but not the other, and it
was interesting to see the reaction and the response.'
Tsjernobyl Hearts is Verhamme's bachelor film at Sint-Lukas
film school in Brussels, but she is already on a fast track
after her short film Cockaigne was selected at last year's
Cannes Film Festival. Offered a place at the prestigious
Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam, she decided to skip the usual
master degree and start work on her debut feature film. She
doesn't want to discuss what it will be about yet, but hopes
to shoot it 'as soon as possible'.
BraM Cartigny I DoCuMentary, 30’
emIlIe VerHamme I FiCtion, 21’
37
nter view
i
38
THe OSCAR NOMINATION FOR DeATH of A SHADow IS OPeNING DOORS
FOR PRODuCeR eLLeN De WAeLe, ATTRACTING NeW TALeNT AND BRINGING
OFFeRS FOR INTeRNATIONAL CO-PRODuCTIONS. MeANWHILe HeR COMPANY,
SeReNDIPITY FILMS, IS ABOuT TO ReLeASe ITS FIRST FICTION FeATuRe,
82 DAyS In APrIL. 'IT'S A veRY exCITING TIMe,' SHe SAYS. 'We HOPe TO START
DeveLOPING MORe PROJeCTS, TO GROW AND ALSO Be MORe ACTIve ON THe
INTeRNATIONAL LeveL. IT'S SOMeTHING I'M ReALLY LOOkING FORWARD TO.'
CoMing out oF
tHe sHadOw
TexT Ian Mundell
PORTRAIT Bart dewaele
Death of a Shadow
De Waele studied journalism and anthropology, but found neither entirely satisfying.
Journalism was too shallow and the immersion required for field anthropology was too
intense. So she set out to explore the possibilities of using visual means to popularise
anthropology. 'I started falling in love with stories and especially the view on reality you get
from documentary,' she recalls. 'That was really what I wanted to do.'
After an initiation into film production in South Africa, she returned to Belgium and in 1999
found work producing commercials with Roses Are Blue (a company which evolved into
Caviar). From there she moved to Czar, again working on commercials, before helping
set up its documentary and fiction label CCCP. Here she worked on the early shorts
of Michaël R. Roskam (Carlo, The one Thing To Do), Blush by choreographer
Wim vandekeybus and ex Drummer by koen Mortier. But she wanted more scope to
choose projects that appealed to her on a personal level, and so in 2006 she set up on
her own as Serendipity Films. 'As an independent producer suddenly I had this liberty to
make my own choices, 'she says'. I could put a lot more of who I was into my projects.'
These first productions reflected her interest in Africa. One was the award-winning
grande Hotel by Lotte Stoops, a portrait of the people living in the shell of a once
luxurious hotel in Mozambique. Then there was Boyamba Belgique, by Dries engels and
Bart van Peel, which attempted to track down the Congolese man who had stolen the
king of Belgium's sword on the eve of the country's independence in 1960. Closer to
home she produced the acclaimed epilogue by Manno Lanssens, an intimate film where
he follows a 50-year-old terminally ill woman through the last year of her life when she sets
about making funeral arrangements and ushering her husband and three children through
the grieving process.
It was only afterwards that she wondered about the attraction these stories held for her. 'It's
not the misery of Africa, it's not the suffering of a woman in the last stages of her life, it's
more about people's strength,' she says. 'For me, that's the thread that connects them: we
are all human, at certain moments we suffer, but our inner strength allows us to overcome.'
The fact that these were all first-time directors was a coincidence. 'They just came with
good stories and good ideas,' she says. But it meant that more was required of her as a
producer, particularly since their proposals were ideas rather than fully formed film projects.
'It takes time and coaching, but at the same time you are more involved in developing
these good ideas into captivating films.’
challenging project
From the outset De Waele had planned to produce fiction films as well as documentaries,
beginning with a feature by Bart van den Bempt. They had worked together on advertising
projects and De Waele was production manager of his short film 15' Metromania.
ellen De Waele and Tom van Avermaet
on the red carpet at this year's
Academy Awards © A.M.P.A.S.
39
40
'it's always thrilling to discover new talent, but for the future i'd like to get more
of a balance between first-time and experienced directors.’
'When he talked about this film he wanted to make about a couple
travelling to Istanbul to reconstruct their son's last journey after his
death I thought: "oh, yes!" It was a great idea and a film that I really
wanted to see made.'
She knew that funding the project would be challenging. 'Bart has
a lot of audiovisual experience and you see that immediately, but it
remains a first film.' Then the global economic crisis broke. 'We started
82 Days in April before the crisis and had a lot of interest, which then
disappeared.' It has taken much longer than planned, but their tenacity
has paid off and the film is in the final stages of post-production.
'editing is one of the most exciting moments, but also the most scary,'
she says. 'You see the strengths and the weaknesses, and then it's a
matter of making the right decisions.' In the case of 82 Days in April that
has been relatively easy. 'We were basically on the same wavelength,
and then seeing the impact of our decisions on the edit showed us we
were on the right track.'
Oscar exposure
82 Days in April
Meanwhile a chance appeared for Serendipity to make a rather different
kind of fiction debut. Tom Van Avermaet had won a VAF Wildcard for his
student short Dreamtime and embarked on the follow-up with a Dutch
producer. De Waele was to co-produce, but when funding fell through
in The Netherlands she made the project her own.
The story concerns a soldier killed in the First World War who has made
a bargain with a mysterious collector of souls. If the soldier gathers
10,000 deaths, capturing their shadows using a special camera, he will
get a second chance of life and a way back to the girl he loves.
De Waele was attracted by the magic realism of the story and
van Avermaet's vision. 'He had prepared the universe that he wanted to
create for his film very well. When you read the script, you could already
see the movie,' she says. 'I also liked the fact that it was really a story
and not 20 minutes out of what could be his first feature film.'
The rest is history. With Matthias Schoenaerts in the lead role,
Death of a Shadow was nominated for the 2013 Oscars in the live-action
short film category. This has opened lots of doors for Van Avermaet.
'Tom is very much in demand at the moment in the States, and people
Boyamba Belgique
Grande Hotel
i
nter view
are proposing scripts to him,' De Waele says. 'I think that, for the genre of films he wants to
make, it's the best market to be in.'
In the short term she hopes Serendipity will be involved as a co-producer, but
initiating a new project with him may take longer. 'He has concentrated all his time on
Death of a Shadow so he doesn't have a script in the draw at the moment, although he does
have a lot of ideas.'
For De Waele, the Oscar exposure has increased the number of people who want to work
with Serendipity. 'I'm getting quite a lot of propositions at the moment, including from more
experienced directors,' she says. 'It's always thrilling to discover new talent, but for the future
I'd like to get more of a balance between first-time and experienced directors.'
She also hopes the Oscar will open the door to more co-productions. 'Within europe we
can’t do without co-productions, but now there is a very keen interest out of the States in
co-producing with europe. Flanders has a perfect climate for that at the moment, so let them
come!'
However, it will be a little while before she can announce anything concrete. 'We have a
few projects in the pipeline, but nothing advanced enough to talk about. But it looks really
thrilling.' 
epiloque
auguSt FolloWS april
With 82 Days in April nearing completion, Bart van den Bempt is already writing a follow
up feature. Called A year from August, it involves a family that always takes its annual
holiday at the same house deep in the woods. But time behaves strangely in this place,
running ahead for some members of the family, while slowing for others. 'Once again it's
a metaphorical story about the cycle of life - about birth, death, love and loss - but in
a different way,' De Waele explains. It also touches the love of magic realism that drew
her to Death of a Shadow. Future documentary productions include two more films from
Manno Lanssens. In The Beguine Project he follows a group of women building a new
beguinage in Bochum, part of a revival in this tradition of women's communities dating
back to medieval Flanders that is currently taking place in Germany. Meanwhile Victims
will focus on women's lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and will dig into the
lives of people, or their next of kin, who were victims of a crime. Women also feature in
The eye of the gazelle, a documentary about a women's refuge in the Moroccan city
of Oujda. The film will be directed by Caroline Van Gastel, who is embarking on her
documentary debut as an author. Finally Serendipity is branching out into art cinema with
the co-production Dr fabre will Cure you, directed by Pierre Coulibeuf. 'It's a fictitious
portrait of the Belgian artist Jan Fabre, based on his performances and visual works,
on his muse Antwerp and his personal diaries,' says De Waele. 'It has turned into an
amazing film, a fairy tale that projects Jan Fabre into his own imaginative universe, set
in the midst of the city of Antwerp.'
ellen de Waele (°1973)*
(2007) - naDine (co-producer)
(2008) - JaCk, tHe BalkanS & i (co-producer)
(2010) - tHe aViatrix oF kazBek (co-producer)
(2010) - BoyaMBa BelgiQue
(2010) - tHe neW Saint (co-producer)
(2010) - SHe’S not Crying, SHe’S Singing
(co-producer)
(2010) - granDe Hotel
(2011) - BroWnian MoVeMent (co-producer)
(2011) - epilogue
(2012) - guerrilla grannieS (co-producer)
(2012) - DeatH oF a SHaDoW
(2013) - 82 DayS in april
* selected filmography
41
42
On tHe
run
TexT Ian Mundell
PORTRAIT tHOMas VanHaute
WHeN CAROLINe STRuBBe PICkeD uP HeR SCReeNWRITING AWARD IN CANNeS FOR
LoST PerSonS AreA SHe WAS HIDING A GuILTY SeCReT. 'I HAD SuCCeSS WITH THe
MOvIe, BuT I WAS THINkING: I DON'T eNJOY THe PROCeSS AT ALL, I HAD STRONG DOuBTS
ABOuT WANTING TO Be A DIReCTOR.' BuT GIvING uP WASN'T AN OPTION, HOWeveR, SINCe
LOST PeRSONS AReA WAS JuST PART OF THe STORY. SHe HAD TO TeLL IT ALL. ‘MY uRGe TO COMe
TO TeRMS WITH “A BAD MeMORY” IS JuST STRONGeR THAN THe PROCeSS.’ FORTuNATeLY THe
ReCeNTLY COMPLeTeD I'M THe SAMe I'M AN OTHeR HAS BeeN A MORe POSITIve exPeRIeNCe.
Rather than determine a style for the film in advance, it
emerges from the interaction of the actors and the location,
using just the available light. 'The camera will capture the
energy of the actors emerging from the scene, and that will
be the style.'
The film she set out to make in 2008 had been conceived
as a trilogy, but then compressed into a story combining the
present and flashbacks to the past. 'I started to shoot and
all the scenes were three times longer than I expected,' she
recalls. 'So when I had shot the flashback story, there was
no time or film left for the other parts. So I stopped, I started
to edit and it made a whole film.'
Having just a third of the expected film could have been
awkward, but then the result - Lost Persons Area - was
selected for the Critic's Week at Cannes and picked up an
award into the bargain. 'Happily I had this Cannes moment
and now I can be freer. In the beginning I had to fight,
because it was my first feature and everyone tries to teach
you how to do it “right”. Now I can do what I want.'
She decided to combine the remaining two parts of the
trilogy into a single film, but once more the characters
asserted themselves and reclaimed the story. 'It happened
nter view
‘in the beginning i had to fight,
because it was my first feature
and everyone tries to teach
you how to do it “right”.
now I can do what I want'
i
'For the first time, we had fun,’ Caroline Strubbe admits.
‘I was so relieved that was possible.' One difference was
that she switched from a film camera to digital, and so
could work with a smaller crew. More importantly, the crew
believed in her method. 'The people were a lot younger and
were really into this way of working.'
Strubbe's method is one reason that more of the story
remained to be told. 'My way of shooting is very organic,'
she explains. 'I don't have a decoupage [shot list], I shoot
chronologically and the cameraman has to follow the action
of the actors. They can go anywhere, so in that way it is like
a documentary.'
I'm the same I'm an other
again. It was better without the third part, so finally it will be
the trilogy that I wanted to do in the first place.'
Lost Persons Area involves a passionate but self-absorbed
couple whose nine-year-old daughter Tessa is left to run
wild, creating a world of wonders in the industrial no-man's
land where the family lives and works. 'It's a story about how
we are marked by things that happen in our childhood, how
we deal with that and how our relationship with our parents
determines our later relationships.'
43
44
personal connection
I'm the same I'm an other picks up the story with Tessa
fleeing the family home with Szabolcs, a Hungarian engineer
who worked for her father. They do their best to disappear,
travelling to england by ferry and renting a holiday apartment
in a run-down seaside resort. In this enclosed space,
Szabolcs and Tessa test the limits of their relationship.
The title comes from a poem by Gianluca Manzi, read by
celebrated jazz trumpeter Chet Baker on one of his final
recordings. 'Because of meeting someone you change,
even if you are still the same,' Strubbe explains.
As in Lost Persons Area, the story has a personal connection.
'It's about searching for a father figure,' Strubbe says.
'I always wanted to be adopted by another family. I wanted
someone to say: I really want to be your father, please come
into my family. And I had moments like that, which were very
nice moments in my life.'
From another angle it touches on Stockholm syndrome,
in which someone starts to identify with a kidnapper, and
other unequal relationships. 'For me it says a lot about the
relationship between men and women as well, even if Tessa
is only a girl. It says a lot about the female condition. From a
very young age girls step into a certain role…'
kimke Desart reprises her role as Tessa. At 11 she is
noticeably older than in the first film, but Strubbe feels this is
an advantage rather than a problem. 'I think it's important for
the film to have this ambiguity of a child who is becoming a
young woman,' she explains. 'At a certain moment Tessa has
to seduce Szabolcs, in a way, and that ambiguity is not easy
to play. kimke could do it immediately. That was good to see
because it is one of the themes of the film, this seductive side
that girls have and that men misinterpret.'
Meanwhile Szabolcs (Zoltan Miklos Hajdu) has to make
sense of the relationship into which he has fallen. 'He is afraid
to be loved, afraid that this girl wants something from him.
It's an exercise in pushing away, coming back, and finally
accepting. They accept the roles they are going to play, in
that it is some kind of love story.'
This also represents a slight change in character from
Lost Persons Area. 'Szabolcs is a very good guy in the first
movie, and here the line between angel and devil is very thin.
He is on the line, and takes the decision to be a good man.'
I'm the same I'm an other
digital camera
Strubbe used the same shooting method as before,
letting the actors dictate the style and set the pace.
The main difference was the setting, which was much more
confined than for Lost Persons Area. 'Tessa is always in this
apartment, which was very small, so although the idea was
the same we couldn't move that much.'
using a digital camera gave her even more freedom to let
the actors explore. 'We could shoot a lot and wait for the
right moment,' she says. Once again she wrote as she went
along and changed details as the situation evolved. 'Your
crew has to like this way of working,' she explains. 'It's
like improvisation in music. You have to know your notes
very well, and I know my script very well after five years
of working on it.' Her previous director of photography,
Nicolas Karakatsanis, was not available for the film so his
place behind the camera was taken by David Williamson,
a young filmmaker much in demand among his peers as
nter view
i
a DoP. 'There was much more interaction with the whole
crew. everyone was concerned about the movie, not only
about their specific departments. We spent much more time
together and they are part of the whole process. And the
same also happened with my editor David verdurme after
the shooting. We had a very intense collaboration. Or with
my producer Tomas Leyers who accepts the whole concept
and who understands that the way you work in will also
determine or influence the final result. I think it’s something
you don’t find that much in a producer nowadays.'
Now it only remains to make the final part of the trilogy,
Deep in a Dream of You, a title also derived from a Chet
Baker song. This will explore Tessa's meeting with Szabolcs
several years after the second’s film dramatic denouement.
exactly what that will involve remains to be seen. 'In making
these two films, I've changed,' Strubbe says, 'so maybe the
characters will change as well.' 
darK and lIGHt
In addition to completing the trilogy that began with
Lost Persons Area, Caroline Strubbe has several
other projects in mind. One involves returning to
Leysdown-on-Sea, the dilapidated resort in the
Thames estuary where she shot the english
sequences of I'm the same I'm an other. 'The people
are extremely poor but amazingly friendly,' she says,
recalling the casting sessions involved in finding extras.
'They have so many stories, so I want to go back for
a documentary or to do something with them acting.'
Another documentary project concerns three
women artists linked by suicide, and in particular
by their decision to jump to their deaths. 'Now I'm
investigating the link between them all,' Strubbe says,
explaining that a common factor seems to be their
partners' jealousy. 'That aspect of it fascinates me.'
To balance this darkness she has also written a
comedy, a tale of misunderstanding and mishap on
the first weekend an absent-minded father is given
custody of his infant child. As the mother goes off
for her first days and nights of freedom in five years,
the child slips through the front door and also heads
off into the city. Paths cross and confusion grows,
but everything comes good in the end. 'It's a gentle
comedy, something light,' Strubbe says, comparing
it to Miranda July's You and Me and everyone We
know and Martin Scorsese's After Hours. 'I want to
work more with actors and dialogue, the opposite
of what I'm doing now,' she goes on. 'Now that I've
written the script I'm curious to see what the style will
be. How can I make a comedy with this same way
of shooting?'
45
anImatIon
noWe
46
PAPeRMAN, THIS YeAR’S BeST ANIMATeD SHORT ACADeMY AWARD WINNeR, IS
A CHARMING, IMAGINATIve YARN ABOuT AN OFFICe WORkeR DeSPeRATe TO Be
ReuNITeD WITH THe BeAuTIFuL YOuNG WOMAN He MeeTS ON A MeTRO PLATFORM.
FLeMISH ANIMATOR MARLON NOWe WAS ONe OF THe CReATIve TeAM ON THe
DISNeY-MADe MOvIe, exeCuTIve PRODuCeD BY JOHN LASSeTeR.
TexT GeOFFrey MacnaB
‘We had just finished our movie Tangled and we had a
couple of months when we had no real production going
on,’ Nowe recalls how Paperman came into being. He and
his colleagues at Disney came up with the idea of making
a short ‘to fill the gap time’. John Kahrs, the animation
supervisor on Tangled, pitched the idea for Paperman and
ended up directing it. Several animators from the crew of
Tangled, Nowe among them, worked on the project.
‘I took care of the animation. That basically means that
once the character is designed and ready for animation,
we take it from there - we make the characters move, act,
talk if they talk. Pretty much anything that moves, that’s
what we did.’
Paperman is shot in black and white but has flashes of
colour. The art director Jeff Turley originated the sleek
1950s-style monochrome New York. ‘What I think is cool
about that is that usually our films are very warm in terms
of colour. This time, we actually chose the opposite...
Paperman © Disney
the only colour in the film is the lips (of the girl).’
Oscar night ended up being a big cause for celebration. The
Paperman team celebrated their Academy Award with as much
enthusiasm as you would expect. Disney hosted a Special Oscar
party for the animators. ‘This year, we were up for two Oscars
- one for wreck-It ralph and one for Paperman,’ the animator
points out. ‘The Oscar win on Paperman was very special since
we did something very unique. We knew we had something that
had never been done before.’
artistic ambitions
Nowe acknowledges that it is a long way from kASk,
the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, where he studied, to
the backlot at Disney. ‘When I started art college in Ghent, they
were very much focused - and they still are - on the 2D side of
things. They’re very much into drawing and those foundations
which are really important,’ Nowe recalls. He told his tutors that
he wanted to specialise in computer animation. At that time, there
was only one computer in the entire faculty. ‘They were kind of
happy that someone was using it.’ He startled his
tutors even more when he told them he wanted
to work at Disney. The school was focused on
the artistic, less commercial side of animation.
Nowe’s father is a musician and his family
supported his artistic ambitions. ‘The problem
was, back in the 1990s, the path to a successful
animation career in europe wasn’t clear at all.
The industry was very small, especially in
Belgium, and paid very badly.’ Once he left
college, he began working on commercials but,
all along, his goal was to get to LA.
In 2000, he was hired by Blur Studio, an animation,
design and vFx company in venice Beach.
Five or so years later, he moved on to Disney
when the studio was hiring for its computer
animated feature Bolt.
John Lasseter
Nowe started with Disney five years ago, just
as John Lasseter and his team from Pixar were
moving in. He has noticed the Pixar boss is
involved in every aspect of the creative process,
from character design to the way a film looks and
its story. ‘When Disney bought Pixar years ago,
the deal they made was that, yes, Disney would
own Pixar but Pixar in return would manage our
animation department. ever since, things have
gotten better tremendously.’
‘He’s very to the point. That’s the way it should be
47
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art film, as well as some of its most striking achievements up to the present, have emerged from Belgium."
Gordon Mirams, Design Review (1950).
"Ambitious and successful films such as the Belgianmade Rubens and Le Monde de Paul Delvaux have
demonstrated how effectively the moving camera can
guide the beholder's eye so as to focus his attention and
heighten his perceptions."
H.W. Janson, Films on Art 1952 (New York, 1953).
"Rubens (Henri Storck & Paul Haesaerts, 1948) combines cinematically brilliant camera penetrations of the
painter’s world with an attempt to drive home his predilection for gyrational movements. Note that this film is
neither pure cinema nor merely a teaching instrument.
It is a glamorous hybrid."
Siegfried Kracauer, Theory of Film (Princeton, 1960).
The 1940s and 1950s can be considered as the heyday of the experimental art
film. Also Belgian filmmakers such as Charles Dekeukeleire, André Cauvin, Henri
Storck, Paul Haesaerts and Luc de Heusch made important contributions to the
genre. This edition brings together 19 of the most important films on 3 DVD's. The
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foreign affairs
good environment
Paperman © Disney
- the guy has very little time. On Wreck-it Ralph, I got to work
with him a little closer. I was a supervising animator on the
film. He’s somebody who, if he likes something, will tell you
but he focuses more on the stuff that is not working. usually,
he will allow you to explore a little bit in the beginning. If you
hit what the film should look like, then we’ll go with that. But
as soon as he senses that things are heading in the wrong
direction, he will be very clear and very decisive.’
Wreck-it Ralph was both tough and a nostalgic exercise for
Nowe. Growing up in Belgium in the 1980s, he was as keen
as any other kid on the arcade games that provide the visual
palate for the film. ‘It was really hard to work on since we
had to create so many different worlds, so many different
styles. It’s something we hadn’t done before. usually, Disney
movies are set in one world with one style but this had, like,
four different worlds. It was very challenging. But just being
part of a movie where you see Pac Man and Sonic and all
those characters was definitely very special.’
For all his success as an animator at Disney, Nowe isn’t
resting on any laurels. ‘It’s a very competitive industry and
a lot of kids are trying to get the same job. You never really
know how it will end up. There’s a saying at the studio
that you’re only as good as your last shot. That is really
how it is. You constantly have to stay on your toes. That’s
a good environment to work in - it does keep you sharp.’
In the long run, he might like to be his “own boss,” but
for the moment, his hands are very full. He’s hard at work
on a new Disney feature, Frozen, an adaptation of Hans
Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen.
He also knows it is foolish to look too far ahead.
‘The industry these days is changing so rapidly that it’s
really hard to predict what is going to happen and where
the studios are going to... are they going to be here in Los
Angeles or maybe in China or India? There will be a lot of
change in the coming years. It’s a matter of trying to pivot
and stay ahead!’ 
aniMSQuaD
Alongside his own animation work, Marlon Nowe
also runs his own online animation school,
Animsquad. This offers animation workshops
to beginners, intermediate practitioners and
to experts. The tutors are experts, they’re all
supervising animators at Disney. His aim is to offer
students affordable courses with state of the art
technology.
The school runs throughout the year. The tutors
tend to work at the school in breaks between big
Disney movies. All the workshops are at night,
‘after hours’.
www.animsquad.com
Paperman © Disney
49
an i mation
dOGs to
tHe reSCue
CANNeS HAS HIGH STANDARDS WHeN IT COMeS TO ANIMATION, SO
The Congress
WHeN THe CONGReSS WAS SeLeCTeD TO OPeN THe DIReCTORS'
FORTNIGHT IT WAS AN IMPORTANT eNDORSeMeNT, BOTH FOR THe FILM
AND FOR FLeMISH ANIMATION STuDIO WALkING THe DOG.
TexT Ian Mundell
PORTRAIT Bart dewaele
eric Goossens (l) and
Anton Roebben
from Walking The Dog
The Congress
The company was introduced to director Ari Folman relatively late in
the production, when he was looking for a studio capable of picking
up work that others had found too demanding. He looked at examples
of its 2D animation for films such as The Triplets of Belleville,
The Secret of kells, and A Monster in Paris, but he seemed to get
more agitated as the meeting went on. 'I thought: this is not going
very well,' producer eric Goossens recalls. But it turned out Folman
was just frustrated not to have found them sooner. 'I've never
convinced a director so quickly.'
Co-produced by entre Chien et Loup for Belgium, The Congress is
the story of an actress who sells her image to a film studio, agreeing
to retire from public life while her digitised identity continues to
perform. One of the tasks given to Walking The Dog was completing
the transitions from live action to animation. Folman was adamant
that this should be done by eye rather than with automated
techniques.
'Harmonising the two demands a lot from the skills of an animator,'
Goossens says. But then a lot of the work assigned to the studio
was highly nuanced. 'It's a very intimate film, where emotion has
to come out small actions and close-ups. This is very challenging.'
Later on, Folman asked if he could borrow some of
Walking The Dog's talent to help complete the film. Eventually four
senior animators made the trip to Israel. 'They stayed in Tel Aviv for
three-four months after our work in Brussels was finished, until the
moment the first edit was sent to Cannes.'
Goossens thinks this is unlikely to be the end of the partnership.
'There was a good feeling and lots of potential to work together
again, in an even more intense way than The Congress.' Meanwhile
Walking the Dog is busy with Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, a
3D animated feature that it is co-producing with French giant europa
Corp. It has 125 animators working on the project, many of whom
will move in May to a new studio complex in Genk. 
51
unDer tHe inFluenCe
52
Bart
Van
den
BeMPt
TOWARDS THe eND OF FILM SCHOOL, ONe OF BART vAN DeN BeMPT'S
TeACHeRS ASkeD THe CLASS ABOuT THeIR PLANS. MOST TALkeD
ABOuT MAkING A FIRST FeATuRe WITHIN THRee YeARS. 'I SAID:
WeLL, I'LL See WHAT HAPPeNS,' He ReCALLS. 'I WANT TO See A BIT
OF THe WORLD FIRST AND IF IN 10 YeARS I CAN MAke SOMeTHING
INTeReSTING, THeN I WILL Be GLAD.'
TexT Ian Mundell
PORTRAIT Bart dewaele
InSPIratIonal
these are some of the works
Bart Van den Bempt currently
gets inspired by:
MuSiC
After graduating in psychology he sat the entrance examination for Sint-Lukas film school in
Brussels, as much for fun as anything else, and got in. Here he encountered films that would
inspire his own work, but more immediately made him want to travel. 'Film and travelling were
always connected for me in those years.' For example, Aleksandr Sokurov's Days of the eclipse
drew him to Central Asia. 'It's a very strange film, a very slow film, but amazingly beautiful.' He
also admired the documentaries of Raymond Depardon. 'I adored his work in Africa.'
After film school van den Bempt worked as an assistant director and sound engineer. 'I'd make
some money and then travel for months,' he says. 'I once travelled around the world on a cargo
ship, for almost a year. Those were defining moments in my life.'
i
Sokurov and Depardon
nfluence
His timing was a little optimistic. Almost 20 years on, van den Bempt is about to complete his
first feature film, 82 Days in April. 'It's a very very late debut,' he laughs. 'But I like the path I've
taken. It was a long and lingering path, but I've enjoyed myself and seen lots of interesting things.'
As a young man he was passionate about photography and jazz, but for practical reasons chose
to study psychology. He was already a convinced cinephile. 'I went to the cinema almost every
evening and I enjoyed european cinema the most,' he says, citing Mauvais sang by Leos Carax
as an early favourite.
Poppies from Kandahar
by Jan Bang
inspired by travels
Travel inspired a number of projects, such as a documentary on the poet Arthur Rimbaud's life
in Africa, but most remained unrealised for lack of funding or simple bad luck. Meanwhile he
was persuaded to try his hand at a Tv commercial. 'Next thing you know you are seven years
older and you've done dozens of commercials,' he says. Later he moved into television, making
factual programmes on everything from house hunting to breeding zoo animals.
This paid the rent while leaving him free to write 82 Days in April, which was also inspired by his
travels. On a flight home from kyrgyzstan, he started to think about what would happen if the
plane crashed. How would his parents react to his death? He landed safely at Brussels airport,
but the idea remained.
The film begins with a Belgian couple in their fifties travelling to Istanbul, to collect the belongings
of their son, who has died while backpacking. They have never been outside europe before.
The father becomes obsessed with following his son's final journey, reconstructed from a journal,
tickets and other scraps left behind. The mother resists. 'The film recounts how they cope with
the death in different ways, how they lose each other at first then find each other again,' says
van den Bempt.
Turkey is a country he knows well. 'I could set scenes in a particular landscape or a particular
town that I knew. We filmed scenes in hotel rooms I stayed in when I was in my twenties.'
He was also able to incorporate the seasons in the storytelling. 'As the two main characters
grow towards one another, the world warms up behind them,' he explains. He shot rain in
Istanbul, snow in the east near Iran and spring on the border with Syria.
He chose not to look for reference films while writing early drafts. 'The inspiration had to come
from my own travels and my encounters with people during those trips,' he says. He also drew
on his studies in psychology, which included the mourning process.
Olé Coltrane
by John Coltrane
Book
Adrift on the Nile
by Naguib Mahfouz
FIlm
Arnold and Ceylan
But the music he was listening to, by Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen, crept in. 'After a
while it started to influence the text,' he recalls. A casual approach to Henriksen resulted in a
meeting. 'He understood what I liked about his music and how I wanted to use it, and now he
is making a soundtrack for the film.'
Closer to the shoot, van den Bempt sought out visual references with director of photography
Rik Zang. Names that recurred included the photographers Antoine D'Agata, Jonas Bendiksen
and Yiorgos kordakis, each with a particular way of looking at the world. Film influences included
Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights, for its allusive treatment of emotions, and the work of
Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
But the main thing was to respond what they found on the ground. 'We always said: we have
this as a back-up, but we will see on set what could be better.' 
A Separation
by Asghar Farhadi
tV
VPRO documentary
series Diogenes,
on home recorded VHS
53
mon i tor
CRIMI CLOWNS GOT NOMINATED TWICE FOR
THIS YeAR’S MONTe CARLO INTeRNATIONAL
TeLevISION FeSTIvAL (9-13 JuNe). MuCH TO THe
SuRPRISe OF ITS CReATOR AND DIReCTOR Luk
WYNS. IN THe MeANTIMe, THe SeRIeS ALSO HAD
A THeATRICAL SPIN OFF THAT IS TO GeT A uk
MAke-OveR.
crIMI clOwns
taKe monte Carlo
54
The first series of Crimi Clowns got nominated both in
the Best european Comedy and the Best International
Comedy categories in Monte Carlo. ‘To be honest I was
flabbergasted,’ says creator Luk Wyns. ‘Monte Carlo is
an internationally renowned television festival that usually
goes for the more traditional TV fare. Crimi Clowns is a
daring series that plays with the classic rules of television
fiction. I’m of course thrilled with the quality label and the
international exposure the series will receive thanks to these
nominations.’
In Crimi Clowns all starts with Wesley Tersago, a student
who’s shown the door after finishing year four at the
Amsterdam Film Academy. As a result he rolls into his
father’s business who runs a criminal gang. After robbing
an electronics store, Wesley decides to record the gang’s
activities with one of the stolen cameras. What follows are
rough, but also funny and even emotional scenes. Everything
is shown through so-called ‘fake found footage’ that is
made by the characters in the series.
After a successful run on both 2Be (Belgium) and veronica
(The Netherlands) channels, Crimi Clowns also made it onto
the big screen with a low-budget movie that the makers
financed entirely with private means. Production costs were
kept low again by using the ‘fake found footage’ procedure.
Wyns recently announced a deal with Company Pictures
in the UK for a British remake of the film, with several A-list
names rumoured to be interested in starring in it.
A co-production between Diamond Films in Antwerp and
Amsterdam based Column Film, the original Crimi Clowns
series stars Johnny De Mol as Wesley, Luk Wyns,
Manou kersting, kris Willemsen, veerle De Jonghe and
Frank Lammers.  Hw
TAke 26 | Summer 2013 | € 3.99
Cover
Jeroen Perceval by Filip van Roe
CReDITS
editor
Christian De Schutter
Deputy editor + Art Direction
Nathalie Capiau
Deputy editor / Digital
karel verhelst
Sub editors
John Adair, An Ratinckx
Contributors
Geoffrey Macnab, Alex Masson, Ian Mundell,
Henry Womersley
Photo credits
P 17 set pictures Image © Julie Landrieu
P 50-51 Bridgit Folman Film Gang - All other stills
copyrighted by the respective producers
Design
Print Wilda Nv
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