Film Fest Gent On Tour

A wealthy businessman is told his son has been kidnapped and he will have to pay a very large sum for him to be returned safely. It is then discovered that his son is safe at home: the kidnapper took his chauffeur's son by accident. The kidnapper says this makes no difference: pay up or the child dies. This leaves him with a moral dilemma, as he really needs the money to conclude a very important business deal.

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Widely regarded as depicting one of the most dysfunctional families in cinema history, Festen is recognized as the first film created under the strict guidelines of the radical Dogme 95 movement. Thomas Vinterberg’s explosive tale of buried secrets and simmering resentment turns any family dinner into a trivial affair by comparison.

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The Jacket is a portrait of Jamal Hindawi, a Palestinian man who lives in exile with his family in the Shatila Refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. When Jamal embarks on a journey to search for an important lost theatre prop, he witnesses how the successive political and economic crises have disrupted an entire region and its people. Belgian director Mathijs Poppe's first feature humbly observes the importance of preserving one's identity and culture, even (or especially) when they're threatened.

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In Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel's high-profile debut, Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) portrays a protective mother of a six-year-old son accused of transgressive behaviour with another student. Together with the school management and the other parents, she tries to uncover the truth, which inevitably leads to all sorts of tensions among the adults within the classroom.

Wide Angle

• Review & notes by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay in collaboration with Fantômas
• Videoessays in collaboration with Filmscalpel

→ read the Wide Angle

In her fiction debut, which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, Payal Kapadia paints an atmospheric portrait of three women trying, in their own way, to hold their own in the chaos and loneliness of Mumbai.

Wide Angle

• Review & notes by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Q&A with director Payal Kapadia
• Essay in collaboration with Fantômas
• Videoessays in collaboration with Filmscalpel

→ read the Wide Angle

In When the Light Breaks, Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson captures the raw emotions of grief as two young women mourn the same lover. Set against Iceland’s stark landscapes, the film focuses on the quiet yet intense moments of loss. With its minimalist style and evocative visuals, this poignant drama transcends conventional tales of sorrow.

Wide Angle

• Q&A with director Rúnar Rúnarsson
• Essay in collaboration with Fantômas
• Videoessays in collaboration with Filmscalpel

→ read the Wide Angle

Shapeshifting between different tones and genres, Aaron Schimberg's multi-layered and somewhat twisted A Different Man is a revisionist Beauty and the Beast story about a man whose face is transformed (into hunk Sebastian Stan) only to discover his fortune didn't take the hint. Bitingly funny and fearless in its execution, it's a reflexive psychodrama about much more than losing face.

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Johan Grimonprez blends jazz, the CIA and the United Nations to create a swinging fusion in Soundtrack to a Coup d’État.

Wide Angle

• Review & Notes on director by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay in collaboration with Fantômas
• Videoessays in collaboration with Filmscalpel

→ read the Wide Angle

In Todd Haynes' dark and deliciously funny melodrama May December, Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman play a mysterious cat-and-mouse game of seduction, naivety and performance.

Wide Angle

• Review & Notes on director Todd Haynes by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay in collaboration with Fantômas
• Video essays curated by Filmscalpel

→ read the Wide Angle

After media satire France, Bruno Dumont, one of the enfants terribles of French cinema, is back with a with an absurdist science-fiction film that can only have sprung from the mind of the director of La vie de Jésus, P'tit Quinquin and Ma Loute.

Wide Angle

• Review & Notes on director Bruno Dumont by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay in collaboration with Fantômas

→ read the Wide Angle

Sick of Myself director Kristoffer Borgli gives Nicolas Cage a dream role in his ingenious fantasy horror comedy.

Wide Angle

• Review & Notes on director by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay in collaboration with Fantômas
• Video essays in collaboration with Filmscalpel
• Illustration by Lisa De Vriese and essay by Silke Bomberna (Cage of Wonders)

→ read the Wide Angle

Chantal Akerman ventures into the world of musical-comedies with this bubblegum pop filled film.

Wide Angle

• Essay in collaboration with Fantômas
• Video essay in collaboration with Filmscalpel
  
• Visit to Chantal Akerman Expo
• Text collection Sabzian

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Jacques Deray explores the difficulties of love, ambition and teenage rebellion in the South of France.

Wide Angle

• Review & Notes on director by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay in collaboration with Fantômas
• Videoessays in collaboration with Filmscalpel

→ read the Wide Angle

In Io capitano, Gomorrah-director Matteo Garrone follows two Senegalese teenagers as they transit from Dakar to Sicily. A hallucinatory and chilling odyssey through the hopeful eyes of the young migrants, including the discovery of Seydou Sarr, who made his acting debut with this film. Both Garrone and Sarr were awarded at the Venice Film Festival.

From his debut feature Rebels of the Neon God (1992), Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang has been developing a quasi-documentary angle combined with slow, contemplative camerawork. Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003) is a melancholic film about the closure of a cinema in Taipei. Everything that, during a film screening, usually happens in the margins is now put under a magnifying glass. From the rattling of the film projector to the sweaty socks of the visitor next to you. Through all these details, the film celebrates the collective experience of watching a film.

Wide Angle dossier

• Tsai Ming-liang portrait by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay by Michaël Van Remoortere in collaboration with Fantômas
• Essay by Daphné De Weirt
• Podcast hosted by Tim Maerschand in collaboration with Urgent.fm

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

Ever since the 1980s, Jim Jarmusch has been one of the flag bearers of American indie film. With his breakthrough film Stranger than Paradise (1984), a slow-paced road movie, he proved from the start that he had little interest in plot or action. Ghost Dog (1999), a mix of a samurai film and gangster epic accompanied by 90s hip-hop, is more accessible than his early work, but at the same time a typical Jarmusch characterised by long camera movements and a captivating protagonist.

Wide Angle dossier

• Jim Jarmusch portrait by Patrick Duynslaegher
• A deep-dive in the soundtrack by Tim Maerschand

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

Laura Poitras already managed to build a solid reputation with her previous politically engaged documentaries, including My Country, My Country (2007) and Citizenfour (2014). With All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022), she shifts her lens to another artist, pioneering photographer Nan Goldin. Poitras portrays Goldin as an artist for whom her work is both a political weapon and a form of trauma treatment.

Wide Angle dossier

• Historical background by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay by Bart Versteirt in collaboration with Fantômas
• Essay by Shauni De Gussem
• Podcast hosted by Bo Alfaro Decreton & Tim Maerschand - in collaboration with Urgent.fm
• Video-essays about All the Beauty and the Bloodshed - curated by David Verdeure from Filmscalpel

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

In the 1970s, Kieślowski graduated from the Polish film school in Łódź (where Roman Polanski, among others, attended school) and started making documentaries. But it did not stop there: the Polish director switched to fiction and made deeply philosophical films about people's innermost thoughts and emotions. La double vie de Véronique, perhaps the highlight of his career, is about the mystical bond between the Polish Weronika and French Véronique.

Wide Angle dossier

• Essay by professor Polish literature Kris Van Heuckelom
• Director Krysztof Kieślowski in context by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay by Shauni De Gussem in collaboration with Fantômas
• Podcast hosted by Bo Alfaro Decreton & Tim Maerschand - in collaboration with Urgent.fm
• Video-essays about Kieślowski by Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin - curated by David Verdeure from Filmscalpel

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

With The Whale, director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan) pursues a phenomenal comeback for actor Brendan Fraser (Crash, The Mummy Trilogy). This heartwarming and heartbreaking drama portrays a father (Brendan Fraser), a reclusive teacher, trying to connect with his estranged teenage daughter, played by rising star Sadie Sink (Stranger Things). Expect a moving portrait of a man trying to give his life meaning once again.

Wide Angle dossier

• A portrait of Darren Aronofsky by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay by Silke Bomberna
• Essay by Michaël Van Remoortere - in collaboration with Fantômas
• Podcast hosted by Bo Alfaro Decreton & Tim Maerschand - in collaboration with Urgent.fm
• Video-essays about Darren Aronofsky - currated David Verdeure from Filmscalpel

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

Felix Timmermans once wrote ‘I am just a poor farmer (...), yet farm life is the most beautiful life there is’. It's a challenge to prove him wrong after seeing the sun-drenched fields in the Catalan village of Alcarràs in Carla Simón's film of the same name. The Solé farming family, however, is in danger of losing its orchard and home after having grown peaches there for generations. In fact, Simón grew up there herself, with her uncle in a family of peach growers, and draws on her own childhood stories. Alcarràs, only the filmmaker's second full-length feature, won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and is a summery, bittersweet portrait of a family - and with them an entire way of life.

Wide Angle dossier

• Review by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay by Boet Meijers - in collaboration with Fantômas
• Podcast hosted by Bo Alfaro Decreton & Tim Maerschand - in collaboration with Urgent.FM

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

In her eighth feature, Mia Hansen-Løve directs star Léa Seydoux towards a very sensitive portrait of a young mother and widow who begins a passionate relationship with an old friend while trying to cope with her father who has a neurodegenerative disease.

Wide Angle dossier

• Context by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay by Bart Versteirt - in collaboration with Fantômas
• Review by Joséphine Vandekerckhove
• Video-essays curated by David Verdeure - in collaboration with Filmscalpel.com
• Podcast hosted by Bo Alfaro Decreton & Tim Maerschand - in collaboration with Urgent.FM

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

Triangle of Sadness is the latest satire from Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, which earned him his second Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Like no other, Östlund dissects our cynical society founded on class differences and manages to make the elite feel uncomfortably in its privileged ivory tower. A frontal attack on our capitalist system and a Golden Palm winner that scrapes the gold leaf of our society.

Wide Angle dossier

• Essay by Alexander De Man
• Essay by Bjorn Gabriels - in collaboration with Fantômas
• Video-essays by David Verdeure - in collaboration with Filmscalpel.com
• Podcast hosted by Bo Alfaro Decreton and Tim Maerschand - in collaboration with Urgent.FM
• Interview with Ruben Östlund by Bo Alfaro Decreton

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

il buco (it) - the hole (eng)

At first glance, the ‘hole’ in the title is little more than a hole in the ground. But in Michelangelo Frammartino's third film, underneath it we find the Abisso del Bifurto, at almost 700 meters one of the deepest caves in Europe. In 1961, a group of speleologists decided to map this cave in Cherciara di Calabria. It seems an unspectacular subject, but Frammartino - who has an eye for rural Italy - captured it in breathtaking images and made a balanced, minimalist film poem. And that is not an easy task in a cave whose walls have never been touched by daylight. Cinema in its purest form.

Wide Angle dossier

• Review by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Essay by Anke Brouwers
• Essay by Bjorn Gabriels - in collaboration with Fantômas
• Video-essays by David Verdeure - in collaboration with Filmscalpel.com
• Podcast hosted by Bo Alfaro Decreton and Tim Maerschand - in collaboration with Urgent.FM

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

In Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story, retired Shukishi and Tomi Hirayama live in the Japanese countryside with their youngest, unmarried daughter. When they decide to visit their children in Tokyo and Osaka, the visit turns into a disappointment. Koichi and Shige turn out to be so busy with themselves and their own families that they have no time for their parents. Disillusioned, the couple travels back home. When Tomi falls ill on the way, it is the children's turn to make the long journey

Wide Angle dossier

• Review by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Context by Tim Deschaumes
• Personal essay by Bart Versteirt - in collaboration with Fantômas
• Video-essay by David Verdeure - in collaboration with Filmscalpel.com
• Podcast hosted by Bo Alfaro Decreton and Tim Maerschand - in collaboration with Urgent.FM

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

After his delirious films full of sex, drugs and violence, Gaspar Noé surprises with Vortex, a film about love in times of dementia. And, taking the challenge even further, films this fading love story entirely in split screen.

Wide Angle dossier

• Review and context by Patrick Duynslaegher and Charlotte Timmermans
• Literary essay by Inge Coolsaet - in collaboration with Fantômas
• Essay about 'mind and body' in Noé's films, by Sven Hollebeke
• Video-essay by David Verdeure - in collaboration with Filmscalpel.com
• Podcast hosted by Bo Alfaro Decreton and Tim Maerschand - in collaboration with Urgent.FM

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

After highlighting the lives of refugees and Roma in Calabria, director Jonas Carpignano concludes his trilogy on the southern Italian region with a portrait of a girl who discovers her father's double life.

Wide Angle dossier

• Review and context by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Literary essay by Hanne Schelstraete - in collaboration with Fantômas
  
• Video-essay by Chiara Grizzaffi and Astrid Ardent - in collaboration with Filmscalpel.com
• Podcast hosted by Bo Alfaro Decreton and Tim Maerschand, including interview with Jonas Carpignano - in collaboration with Urgent.FM

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

For February's On Tour, FFG is presenting Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's grandiose masterpiece Drive My Car. The film was overwhelmed with praise in Cannes, where it also won the award for best screenplay. Based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, Drive My Car follows a theatre actor and director who agrees to perform a play in Hiroshima. For the occasion, he is assigned a young female driver who keeps mostly quiet.

Wide Angle dossier

• Review and context by Patrick Duynslaegher
• Murakami & Hamaguchi - Luk Van Haute
• Literary essay by Michaël van Remoortere - in collaboration with Fantômas
• Podcast hosted by Bo Alfaro Decreton and Tim Maerschand - in collaboration with Urgent.FM

→ read the Wide Angle (only in Dutch)

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