28/03/2007

The second feature by Felix von Groeningen (see interview), Dagen Zonder Lief [+see also:
trailer
interview: Felix van Groeningen
film profile] (lit. “Days Without Love”), has got off to a promising start in cinemas.

Enthusiastic press reviews helped the title attract 15,000 filmgoers in its opening week (11,000 in five days) after the film’s release last Wednesday through Kinepolis on 14 screens in Flanders and Brussels. In 2003, the director’s debut feature, Steve + Sky garnered 45,000 admissions after six weeks.

Produced by Dick Impens for Menuet on a modest €1m budget, Dagen Zonder Lief was backed by the Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds (VAF) and broadcasters VRT and Prime, and received tax shelter funding through intermediary agency Scope Invest (see news).

Von Groeningen has teamed up with Impens again for the production of his next film, an adaptation of Dimitri Verhulst’s hit Flemish novel "De helaasheid der dingen" that sold 30,000 copies. Filming is already underway.

Flemish cinema is doing well of late. Successful big-budget productions with attractive casts, such as Hell in Tangier [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Storm Force 10, literally took the Belgian box office by storm in 2006, registering 185,228 and 226,422 admissions respectively.

Independent auteur cinema is also making it big on screens with the release in recent months of such arthouse titles as Khadak [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jessica Woodworth
interview: Jessica Woodworth
film profile] (see Focus), Koen Mortier’s Ex Drummer [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Geoffrey Enthoven’s The Only One [+see also:
trailer
film profile], currently screening in New York (see news), in addition to von Groeningen’s film and Someone's Else Happiness [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Fien Troch, who is currently preparing her second feature, The Unspoken, a Prime Time production backed by the VAF.

(Translated from French)