14 Nov '16

Moral ambiguity abounds in new Flemish film Le Ciel Flamand

Summary

Thanks to outstanding performances all around, Peter Monsaert’s new film about child molestation is as sensitive as it is dramatic

 

Family matters

Last week, Flanders Today published an article about the women who work in Antwerp’s red light district. Hearing their stories is a way to break down the barrier between the workers and the public represented in that thin pane of glass.

The new movie Le Ciel Flamand (Flemish Heaven) makes a similar effort. Scripted and directed by Peter Monsaert, who covered similar territory in his debut film Offline, Le Ciel is set in one of those stand-alone houses along Flanders’ thoroughfares that seem a world away from the steady line of windows in their urban counterparts.

Eline is taken with the homey appearance and pretty red lights that adorn her mother’s workplace, and, having just turned six, she’s starting to ask questions. She always has to wait in the car for her sweet and soft-spoken mum, Sylvie, the establishment’s owner and bartender, who placates her daughter with stories of how her customers come to her office when “they need a hug”.

But one day when Sylvie is distracted on the first floor, Eline decides to have a look inside. And then something very bad happens.

Monsaert handles the moral ambiguities of this situation fairly well, never judging Sylvie as she spends the rest of the film tortured by self-blame. She also throws a little blame over to Eline’s father, who Eline only knows as her beloved “uncle Dirk”. Dirk (Wim Willaert, an Offline alum) has plenty of guilt of his own, feeling like a failure as a father who’s not around.

When the police close the case empty-handed, Sylvie starts her own investigation, and the strained relationship with Dirk leads both of these lost souls down a revenge path of no return.

Sara Vertongen (Binnenstebuiten) is especially sympathetic as a quietly tough single mum struggling to maintain a family business in which she’s quickly losing faith. And Esra Vandenbussche is a little revelation, portraying Eline so naturally, one almost forgets it’s fiction. ★★★☆

Le Ciel Flamand (in Dutch) opens across Brussels and Flanders on 16 November

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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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