Benny Vandendriessche
'Bobbejaan' is an intimate documentary about life itself. What does it do to a person, when he has a lot of past but not a lot of future? Bobbejaan had an incredible career. His life rushed by, selling millions of records and building a successful theme park. Close to the end, he fades out. But not before he shines one last time.
A Belgian couple waits in an empty hotel in the Carpathian mountains. She suffers from a lingering illness. He helps her find her peace. Left alone, he escapes reality and starts to wander. DRIFT explores his quest for salvation on a mythical journey through a barren Romanian wasteland. Fighting his memories, the drifting man chooses not to speak and to loose himself in an animal-like and primitive existence. His simple but painful rituals echo an ancient culture long forgotten. As the past reveals itself, insanity sets in. Slowly, he disappears as well.
FRONT creates a wordless and tactile experience about the atrocities of world war I. The film depicts a young Belgian soldier, stuck in the horror of the trenches I. Overwhelmed by fear and physical exhaustion, he suffers from shell shock. His body is out of control and he tries to escape. At first, his friend protects him from certain death by restraining him. But eventually, they accept the inevitable. —Benny Vandendriessche
