Waste Land and All Yours illustrate once more the diversity of Belgian cinema
- Today sees the release of two Belgian auteur films discovered in Belgium during the last Ghent Film Festival, as well as a prestigious co-production that looks set to impress
With Waste Land [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pieter Van Hees
film profile], Pieter Van Hees offers a dive into the troubled waters of a shady Brussels, with Léo (the intense and worrisome Jérémie Rénier) as our guide, an inspector at the criminal investigations unit, who, on the threshold of a fatherhood that could illuminate his inner darkness, lets himself sink into the depths of a murder case against a backdrop of wrestling and witchcraft. Seized by the mysteries of Matongé, the Congolese neighbourhood in Brussels, he sets out wandering, alienates himself from his wife, and ploughs on through a Belgium haunted by its colonial past. Waste Land is the third part of a trilogy entitled Anatomy of Love & Pain. Van Hees delivers a variation visually inspired by noir cinema and well-served by a truly effective soundtrack. Although Léo’s character tends to build up the initial trauma, Waste Land bears witness to Van Hees’ true brilliance. The film, produced by Epidemic, is distributed by O’Brother in half a dozen cinemas in Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia.
Another Belgian film showing is All Yours [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: David Lambert
film profile], David Lambert’s second feature film, unveiled this summer at Karlovy Vary, where he took home the Award for Best Actor. We follow in the footsteps of Lucas (Nahuel Perez Biscayar), a young Argentinean escort boy landed from Buenos Aires to work as an apprentice in Henri’s bakery, whom he met online. Henri (Jean-Michel Balthazar) is looking for love, company, and free labour. Incidentally, he’ll find himself saving the young man from prostitution. But Lucas is in love with Audrey (Monia Chokri), the bakery saleswoman, who has everything he wants in a woman but she turns him down. After Beyond The Walls [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: David Lambert
film profile], Lambert once again focuses on love stories and sex, plunging into his characters’ private lives without pretence. Like Beyond the walls, All yours is produced by FraKas Production, and distributed in Belgium by Imagine.
Finally worth noting is the release this week of the animation movie Asterix - The Land of The Gods [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] directed by duo Louis Clichy - Alexandre Astier, co-produced in Belgium by Belvision, the Dupuis group production company.
(Translated from French)
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