28 Aug '15

Johan Heldenbergh cast as lead in Zookeeper’s Wife

Summary

Flemish actor Johan Heldenbergh will play the real-life zookeeper Jan Zabinski in a new Hollywood film set in Nazi-occupied Poland

 

Based on true story

Flemish actor Johan Heldenbergh of Broken Circle Breakdown fame has been cast as one of the leads in The Zookeeper’s Wife, a new Hollywood film about the Polish couple who saved 300 Jews from the gas chambers during the Second World War.

The film is based on the 2007 book by American writer Diane Ackerman, based on diaries of the real-life couple. Heldenbergh (pictured) plays Jan Zabinski, who was the director of the Warsaw Zoo in the 1930s. The role of Antonina Zabinski will be played by Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty). Niki Caro, director of Whale Rider and North Country, is set to direct the film.

Heldenbergh, 48, has long been a popular stage, television and film actor, with memorable roles in TV series Jes and films De helaasheid der dingen (The Misfortunates) and Aanrijding in Moscou (Moscow, Belgium) 

His international breakthrough was The Broken Circle Breakdown, in which he played a man struggling to communicate with his partner after the death of their daughter. The film, based on Heldenbergh’s own stage play, won numerous awards worldwide and was last year nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. 

The Zookeeper’s Wife is slated for release at the end of next year.

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Flemish cinema

Thanks to a federal tax shelter system, support from the Flemish Audiovisueel Fund and the rise of a new generation of talented filmmakers, Flemish cinema has been riding the crest of a wave since the mid-2000s with distinctly locally flavoured features that have appealed to both crowds and critics.
Loft - With more than one million viewers, Erik Van Looy’s Loft was the most successful movie ever made in Flanders.
Bullhead - In 2012, Michaël R Roskam’s directorial debut Rundskop (Bullhead) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film.
Names - Well-known current Flemish directors include Erik Van Looy, Jan Verheyen, Michaël R Roskam, Fien Troch and Felix Van Groeningen.
1

in 5 movie tickets sold in Flanders is to see a Flemish movie

226

international festival nominations or prizes in 2012

1 462 160

people went to see a Flemish (co)production in Belgium in 2012

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