07/04/2014 - The director is filming his fourth feature length film, a romantic comedy with multiple characters with linguistic conflict as a background

Vincent Bal is filming his fourth feature length film, Brabançonne (after Belgium’s national anthem), an ambitious project presented as the first musical comedy to come out of Belgium. Vincent Bal has so far distinguished himself making films mostly for young audiences. Minouche (2001) attracted almost a million spectators in Flanders and in the Netherlands and Nono, the ZigZag Kid [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2012), which won the young public award at the European Film Awards and at the International Children’s Film Festival in Montreal. 

With Brabançonne, Vincent Bal is changing his target audience and tackling a sensitive subject: the “war” between Flemish and Walloon people. Obviously, the subject is treated with a degree of lightness. Vincent Bal has prepared a kind of Romeo and Juliet with linguistic battles as background, immersed in Belgian pop culture. The plot seems like it is something out of a Glee episode. Two competing bands are getting ready for a big competition when a star suddenly disappears. The Flemish band decides to recruit one of the Walloon stars to its ranks. An opportunity to stage a comedy on clichés and prejudices and to laugh over community divisions.  

In order to do this, Vincent Bal has surrounded himself with a top team. The screenplay includes Pierre de Clercq (author of Hasta la Vista [+see also:
trailer
interview: Geoffrey Enthoven
film profile]) and the production of omnipresent Peter Bouckaert from Eyeworks (De Behandeling [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Tot Altijd [+see also:
trailer
film profile], The Verdict [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Marina [+see also:
trailer
interview: Cristiano Bortone
film profile]). Starring in the multi-character film are Arthur Dupont (returning to Belgium after Mobile Home [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Erika Sainte (Magritte for most promising female actress for Elle ne Pleure Pas, Elle Chante [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Tom Audenaert (Hasta la Vista, Les Rayures du Zèbre [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), and for the first time on screen, Amaryllis Uitterlinden, a young singer from Flanders.

The film, which will be coming out on the big screen in time for the Christmas holidays (distributed by Kinepolis), will be coproduced by Entre Chien et Loup and Samsa Film, with support from VAF, CCA and Screen Flanders. Filming, which started mid-March in Luxemburg, will come to a close on April 25 in Belgium.

(Translated from French)