From Malaysia to Congo, via Turkish Antwerp

by Aurore Engelen

29/02/2012 - Three Belgian productions shine among a mixed selection of 12 new films out this week in Belgium.

In Flanders, chronic agitator Guy Lee Thys is back. After an intercultural love story set to a Flemish extremist and Muslim background in Kassablanka (2002) and pedophilia in Suspect (2005), in Mixed Kebab he now takes on the new political theme of homosexuality among the Turkish community in Antwerp. The film, which has received the support from VAF and VRT, is produced by Fact & Fiction (the director’s company), and has been distributed by Kinepolis in about 15 cinemas.

On the other side of the country, two striking figures of Belgian cinema have returned. Documentary filmmaker Thierry Michel is back with L’Affaire Chebeya, un crime d’état? (lit. “The Chebeya affair, a state crime?”) about the court case following the murder of Congolose human rights activist Floribert Chebeya, whose mysterious disappearance caused indignation nationwide. Michel thus adds to his body of work on the Congo, started in 1992 with Zaïre, le cycle du serpent (lit. “Zaire, the serpent’s cycle”) that includes Mobutu, King of Zaire (1999), Congo River [trailer] (2005), and Katanga Business [trailer] (2009). The film, distributed by production company Les Films de la Passerelle, is out in five cinemas in Brussels and Wallonia.

Finally, also on show this week is the latest film by Chantal Akerman, a great figure of the Belgian art scene, a film director, and a video installation artist. After her adaptation of Marcel Proust’s La Prisonnière in The Captive, she once again finds inspiration in literature with Almayer’s Folly [trailer], an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s first novel. The film follows a western father along a river in South-East Asia, as he dreams of fortune for his beloved mixed-raced daughter. Unveiled at the Venice Film Festival, the film has received mixed reviews, with some calling it spell-binding and others dismissing it. Produced by Artémis in coproduction with Liaison Cinématographique and Paradise Films, Almayer’s Folly is distributed by Cinéart.

(Translated from French)