02/04/2014 - The director uses Flying Home to pay homage to pigeon fancying and to the soldiers of World War One – under the guise of a romantic comedy

Dominique Deruddere is making a return to screens with his new film, Flying Home [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a romantic comedy that combines tenacious pigeon fanciers and young, international go-getters in the world of finance. Deruddere began his career by adapting none other than Charles Bukowski (Crazy Love, named the best Flemish film of the last 25 years in 1990) and John Fante (Wait until Spring, Bandini, starring Faye Dunaway, among others, and co-produced by Zoetrope, Coppola’s company). He returns to the silver screen at rather irregular intervals, for example with Everybody’s Famous! in 2001, a nominee in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars.

With Flying Home, he immerses a young American trader in deepest Flanders. Under the pretext of searching for the grave of his grandfather, who was killed in action during the First World War, Colin is actually looking to get his hands on a star pigeon (a veritable champion in the sphere of pigeon fancying), on behalf of an Arabic sheikh. And in order to be more effective at convincing the infamous pigeon’s somewhat grumpy owner, what could work better than going through his delightful granddaughter?

Jamie Dornan plays the role of Colin. A former Irish model, who appeared in Sofia Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette, he is better known for having landed the lead role in the adaptation of the erotic bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey. He is joined by Charlotte De Bruyn, a Flemish theatre actress who appeared in Little Black Spiders [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; she plays the irresistible granddaughter, a seemingly much sought-after role, since a great many Flemish actresses went to audition for the part. Lastly, Jos Pauwels, the bad-tempered pigeon-fancying owner, is played by Jan Decleir, a legend of Flemish cinema who has appeared in De Zaak Alzheimer, Man zkt Vrouw and Les Barons [+see also:
film review
trailer
Interview with director and actress of…
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile]. Produced by Otomatic, Deruddere’s own company, the film is being distributed by Kinepolis in over 25 cinemas, just before the start of the Easter Holidays. It could very well be this spring’s Flemish hit. 

(Translated from French)