Julie zwijgt (Leonardo van Dijl, 2024)

Kortrijk native Leonardo van Dijl's feature debut Julie zwijgt (English: Julie Keeps Quiet) is a solid, if occasionally ambiguous, psychological drama that delves into the vagaries of human emotion and the strength of silence.  This nuanced film, selected as Belgium's entry for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards, was written by the director and Ruth Becquart, and stars Becquart, Tessa van den Broeck and Laurent Caron.  Its narrative is set against the backdrop of an elite Belgian tennis academy, where the protagonist of the title (Van den Broeck) faces a moral dilemma when her coach, Jeremy (Caron), is suspended.

The dedicated, driven and solitary Julie is quite clearly the best tennis player in the current cohort, but her life is upended when allegations surface against the oily Jeremy, whose conduct may have spurred the suicide of another highly promising student, Aline.  When the rather inscrutable Julie's classmates come forward to speak out, she—as per the title—opts to keep quiet.  This key decision forms the nub of the story, which explores themes of peer pressure and the isolating weight of silence.  Julie zwijgt is a film that invites the viewer to reflect on the power of their own voice, and how they might choose to use (or withhold) it.

Julie zwijgt's production journey is an interesting one: the film's genesis lies in Van Dijl's 2015 short Umpire, which was awarded a VAF Wildcard; the feature was announced in March 2023, and the project quickly gained momentum with the involvement of the revered Dardenne brothers—who co-produced the film through their company Les Films du Fleuve—and Cargo director Gilles Coulier.  Playwright Florian Zeller and tennis player Naomi Osaka served as executive producers, with the collaboration between these luminaries from very different fields adding an extra layer of authenticity to this well-rounded film.

Julie zwijgt throws light on the hidden battles many face in their daily lives, and it presents viewers with the stark calculus of the consequences that come with walking the path of the lone wolf, which in this case involves facing extreme adversity; moreover, Van Dijl's film forces us to consider the cost of silence and the scars it leaves behind.  As a drama that tackles real-world issues and examines the human psyche, the assured Julie zwijgt is a timely exploration of a thorny subject matter; the film's success on the festival circuit and the fanfare surrounding its release suggest that it will ignite debate for some time yet.

Darren Arnold

Images: Flanders Image

Maldoror (Fabrice du Welz, 2024)

Despite his Belgian nationality, Fabrice du Welz has often been linked with the New French Extremity, as has that fine performer Laurent Lucas, whose extensive work in the movement includes Leos Carax's Pola X, Julia Ducournau's Raw, Marina de Van's In My Skin, and a trio of films for Bertrand Bonello.  Maldoror sees du Welz once again reunite with Lucas, who previously starred in the director's films Calvaire, Adoration and Alleluia.  As with du Welz's feature debut Calvaire, Maldoror pits Lucas against a quite diabolical character played by Jackie Berroyer, an actor who has never been more sinister than in his work for du Welz, which also includes a turn in Inexorable (pictured below), whose female leads Alba Gaïa Bellugi—sister of Galatéa— and Mélanie Doutey both have roles in Maldoror.

While Du Welz's longstanding fascination with the macabre is present in the riveting Maldoror, what is conspicuous by its absence is the streak of jet-black humour normally associated with his work; given that the film focuses on the case of Marc Dutroux, Belgium's most notorious child killer, this seems wholly appropriate.  Many consider the string of abduction murders carried out by Dutroux to be the worst crimes in Belgian history—indeed, the impact of the case was so profound that one-third of Belgians with the surname Dutroux sought to change their last name.  Prior to the Dutroux affair, the Charleroi suburb of Marcinelle was best known for a 1950s mining accident that killed 262 people; that this disaster has now been eclipsed says much about these brutal murders' terrible legacy.

As such, du Welz needed to take a most cautious approach when preparing his film, which features some fabricated elements in order to provide a sense of justice that many Belgians felt was lacking from the real-life case (the director has cited Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood as a key influence in this regard).  The names of the characters have been fictionalised, with Sergi López's skin-crawling Marcel Dedieu serving as a proxy for Dutroux as Anthony Bajon's young police officer Paul Chartier becomes obsessed with linking the suspect to the disappearance of two young girls.  The impulsive Chartier is largely hamstrung by both his jobsworth boss Hinkel (Lucas) and a system in which, à la David Fincher's Zodiac, three separate police services are rarely on the same page.

Maldoror is a police procedural that has much else in common with Fincher's touchstone of the subgenre: each film runs to over two and a half hours and features a protagonist whose monomaniacal devotion to cracking a serial killer case results in the loss of their job and family.  In choosing to focus on the investigation as opposed to the crimes, du Welz handles the material in a subtle, tactful manner—yet Maldoror remains a queasy spectacle, one that will prove too strong for some.  It is now almost 30 years since Dutroux was apprehended—he was caught in 1996, the same year the death penalty was abolished in Belgium—but this dreadful episode remains a highly sensitive matter for many of Fabrice du Welz's compatriots, as does the topic of his next film: the rubber trade in the Belgian Congo.

Darren Arnold

Images: BFI

After the Long Rains (Damien Hauser, 2024)

Following 2021's Blind Love and 2022's Theo: vestlus aususega, After the Long Rains is Damien Hauser's third feature film—not bad going for someone in their early twenties.  The Zurich-based Hauser is an extremely hands-on filmmaker, and a brief glance at the end credits of the IFFR-selected After the Long Rains reveals the extent of his involvement; beyond Hauser's duties as writer-director, his responsibilities include editing, producing, composing, photographing, driving, and mixing the sound.  Hauser's multitasking appears to be a direct result of budgetary constraints—as opposed to a monomaniacal desire to control virtually every aspect of this handsome-looking production.     

After the Long Rains centres on Aisha (Eletricer Kache Hamisi), a lively ten-year-old who dreams of becoming an actress.  Once this plan is vetoed by her elders, Aisha focuses on becoming a fisherwoman, something she considers to be a more achievable ambition.  However, even that career choice is frowned upon by others, who think of fishing as an exclusively male activity.  This gender bias also goes in the other direction, as Aisha's older brother Omari (Ibrahim Joseph) is handy with a sewing machine and has a secret passion for making clothes, yet he's widely expected to follow in the footsteps of family patriarch Bakari (Emmanuel Baraka Gunga), who earns his living as a motorcycle chauffeur.    

Undeterred by such views, the headstrong Aisha pushes on with learning all she can about fishing, and she's helped in this endeavour by local angler Hassan (Bosco Baraka Karisa), who is happy to tell the child what he knows—including a handed-down tale of a mythical golden fish.  Hassan is generally an amiable sort, but his fondness for a few drinks leads to a heated exchange between the fisherman and Bakari that puts Aisha's training in jeopardy.  Towards its conclusion, After the Long Rains brilliantly veers off into a magical realism that provides a glimpse of the dazzling work it might have been (budget permitting).  As it stands, Damien Hauser's film is likeable and pleasant, but far from essential.      

Darren Arnold

Images: BFI

David Lynch (1946–2025)

"I'll see you again in 25 years"

RIP, Mr Lynch.

Image: StudioCanal

A Common Sequence (Mary H. Clark/Mike Gibisser, 2023)

In just under 80 minutes, this experimental documentary zips around North America between South Dakota, Washington State and Mexico as it deals with three pressing eco-political issues, all of which are bound up with the erosion of longstanding ways of life.  A Common Sequence's first port of call is the Mexican state of Michoacán, home to the Lake Pátzcuaro salamander.  This neotenic, axolotl-like creature—known locally as the achoque—is exclusively found in the body of water from which it takes its name, but overfishing, pollution and the introduction of invasive species have all contributed to nudging these salamanders to the brink of extinction; it is thought that less than a hundred achoques now exist in the wild, although four colonies for captive breeding have been established in Mexico.  One such laboratory, close to Lake Pátzcuaro, is run by Dominican nuns, who extract a syrup from the achoques' skin, which is then sold to generate funds for the convent.  The locals who consume the syrup do so in the hope that they may take on some of the achoque's special qualities, for these salamanders possess remarkable regenerative abilities, and can even regrow entire limbs.

Yet the achoque's borderline-magical properties have attracted attention way beyond Mexico, with the American military taking a keen interest in these remarkable amphibians' restorative capacities; perhaps unsurprisingly, the US Department of Defense has pored over the achoque's DNA to see if it can be used to help soldiers who have lost arms and/or legs.  But A Common Sequence also considers how the human genome is being studied, with the film later moving its focus to the lands of the Cheyenne River Sioux, where it is alarmingly revealed how private companies are sequencing the DNA of indigenous peoples in an attempt to better understand their resistance to certain diseases; tribal sovereignty in the United States is not a new concept, but in A Common Sequence noted biological scientist Joseph Yracheta argues how people in general, and Native Americans in particular, should have control over their own DNA.  The film's third narrative strand deals with a Washington State University AI machine that has learned to harvest apples, and this subject is linked back to Lake Pátzcuaro, as its fishermen, faced with a declining aquatic population for which they are partly responsible, have ventured to the Pacific Northwest in search of fruit-picking work.

A Common Sequence instils a sense of unease in the viewer as it looks to the future, with a planet that's staring down the barrel of a post-fossil fuel era already looking for new materials to extract and commodify.  Although we are currently living in an age where data mining is commonplace, Mary Helena Clark and Mike Gibisser's film points to a world to come in which people are unwittingly reduced to a lengthy code consisting of just four distinct letters.  With the possible exception of the US DoD's research into limb regeneration, all of the ventures detailed in A Common Sequence dance to the tune of capitalism, from the sale of the achoque oil to the logging of Native American DNA to the robot designed to outperform the workers it imitates.  That the filmmakers have been able to weave these initially seemingly disparate threads into a fluid, cohesive whole says much about the skills of those behind the camera.  What's more, A Common Sequence is as interesting visually as it is narratively, with some striking imagery used to good effect.  This is an assured, thought-provoking film, one which deftly avoids didacticism as it invites speculation on what lies ahead.

Darren Arnold

Images: BFI

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