Great projects for big Belgian festivals
Autumn has just begun, and it's the season for major film festivities in Belgium: the Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur (FIFF) and the Film Festival Gent. Audiences and 7th art professionals alike are spoilt for choice with a rich and varied program, which each year features projects, many of which are supported by screen.brussels. Here's a sneak preview.
Film Fest Gent 2024
BXL
Two brothers, Tarek (26) and Fouad (12), unexpectedly get a chance to escape their current lives, but their chances turn faster than expected. In addition to brotherly love and big dreams, brothers Ish and Monir Ait Hamou show in their directorial debut BXLthe fierce battle between personal ambitions and social expectations in the heart of Brussels, according to Ish "one of the most frowned upon, marginalised neighbourhoods in Brussels".
De Laatste Joodse Zomer
Eighty years after the tragic summer of 1942, when the Antwerp police assisted in the arrest of thousands of Jews, students from a superdiverse school are uncovering the poignant history of their city. Through their exploration, they connect with descendants of both the victims and those complicit in the atrocities. What does this dark chapter mean to them today?
Maldoror
In the mid-1990s, the Belgian gendarmerie secretly runs a three-man operation to track down two missing girls. The manhunt for the prime suspect and his accomplices eats away at the soul and personal life of Paul Chartier, a fresh-faced and idealistic police officer with a short fuse and a troubled past. Maldoror is no sensationalist roman à clef around the infamous Dutroux case, but rather a true crime-inspired, sinister procedural in its own right. Through his profound understanding of genre cinema, writer-director Fabrice du Welz probes the cracks in the human psyche and institutions of power. Hellish or healing, lead actor Anthony Bajon will drag you down along du Welz’s collective calvary.
Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur
Une part manquante
Every day, Jay drives his cab through Tokyo in search of his daughter, Lily. Separated for 9 years, he has never been able to get custody of her. Just as he has given up hope of seeing her again and is about to return to France, Lily enters his cab, but she doesn't recognize him...
Sauvages
In Borneo, on the edge of the rainforest, Kéria takes in a baby orangutan found on the oil palm plantation where her father works. At the same time, Selaï, her young cousin, comes to take refuge in their home to escape the conflict that pits his nomadic family against the logging companies. The ancestral forest is more threatened than ever. Together, Kéria, Selaï and the baby monkey christened Oshi will brave all obstacles to fight against the programmed destruction.
Fuga
In the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, where terrorist and homophobic groups raged in the 80s and 90s, Saor accompanies the body of the woman who was once his love. Haunted by the weight of the past, Saor, like a shaman, gradually transcends his perception of reality through the disturbing revelations of the community he encounters. To the point of horror, he pierces the unspoken.
