In the Name of the Son

A funeral-speech writer gets a new lease on life when he meets a widow who commissions him to write a piece for her 8-year-old son.

Vincent Lannoo, the film-maker, pitches a new TV show to a producer. The show will portray the life of 10 poor people and Vincent has already filmed some sequences for the show. One of the sequences, however, may not go over too well.

Justine, 40, is struggling to reconcile her family life and her job as a police officer in the serious-crimes squad. Then she's accused of stealing money during a raid that goes wrong.

Vincent Lannoo’s ‘mockumentary’ shows us a community of vampires in Belgium. The two ‘parents’ of the family are George and Bertha, who have two teenage children – or rather, they raise two former humans who they turned into vampires. Son Samson is a bit of a jack the lad: enjoying the sexual freedom of vampire life, with all the vigour of an irresponsible young adult regardless of consequences (even incest is not frowned upon in their world, where the word ‘wife’ is often synonymous with ‘mother’ or ‘sister’). Daughter Grace yearns for humanity in a different way: applying fake tan to get rid of her vampiric pallor, dressing in pink clothes, wishing she could feel emotion and even having a human boyfriend.

After his parents’ death, Shawn, 19 and mildly delinquent, tries to look after his little sister to cash in on his dad’s life insurance. But you can’t buy love -- and you sure can’t ignore it. Shawn will find out he’s got more to gain by giving than taking.

George is to make a film with the cooperation of the students of a Brussels high school. The subject suggested by Saïda and Julie is tricky: they want George to film their own love story. George accepts and tries to impose the theme of lesbian love.

George is a furniture seller. He's a reliable husband and a good father, a loyal friend and a fine handyman. One day on the motorway, he cracks up and kills a man in an outburst of rage. He feels responsible for the man's wife, but terrified by his own violence, he doesn't know how to handle her. This is the starting point for a seemingly never-ending string of problems.