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PRODUCTION Belgium

Hilde Van Mieghem adapting Tom Lanoye’s smash-hit novel Sprakeloos

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- Viviane De Muynck and Stany Crets play opposite one another in Sprakeloos, an adaptation of the Tom Lanoye novel directed by Hilde Van Mieghem and being produced by Caviar

Hilde Van Mieghem adapting Tom Lanoye’s smash-hit novel Sprakeloos
Director Hilde Van Mieghem (© Ludo Mariën)

25 July saw the start of the shoot for the new film by Hilde Van Mieghem, Sprakeloos, in Oordegem (Flanders). Van Mieghem initially made a name for herself as an actress, having performed in a plethora of Flemish movies in the 1990s and 1980s (she has worked with such names as Jan Verheyen, Dominique Deruddere and Erik Van Looy), as well as on television. In 2004, she directed her first feature, De Kus. She immediately went on to direct Dennis van Rita [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
in 2005, followed by Smoorverliefd [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
in 2009, thus making Sprakeloos her fourth feature.

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The film is an adaptation of Tom Lanoye’s autobiographical novel Sprakeloos (which has sold over 125,000 copies), which tackles the stroke suffered by the novelist’s mother and her subsequent loss of speech, turning a once strong woman into a mere shadow of her former self. This affliction plunged the author – who was already under a lot of pressure, as he had to send in the manuscript of his new novel – into a profound spiral of questioning his life choices. The story also takes a look back at the writer’s childhood and his relationship with his parents. The role of the mother has been entrusted to Viviane De Muynck (who appeared recently in The Ardennes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Robin Pront
film profile
]
, Flying Home
 [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and Time of My Life [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), while the author is played by Stany Crets (who is well known among Flemish audiences for his various TV roles, and who has also performed in Groenten uit Balen and Cut Loose by Jan Verheyen). They are flanked by such names as Marie Vinck, an actress who played in Loft [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, SM-Rechter
and Oxygen [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, and who is incidentally the director’s daughter.

Sprakeloos is being produced by Caviar Films, with backing from the Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Screen Flanders and the MEDIA programme. It will be distributed by Paradiso Filmed Entertainment and is slated for a theatrical release in spring 2017.

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(Translated from French)

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