Jan Decleir
How the last King of the Belgians becomes the first Emperor of Europe.
Who's keeping the citizens of a Belgian provincial town out of their sleep? Is it Santa Clause?
In 1885, Africa is a succulent cake destined to be wildly divided and everyone wants a piece. A disturbed European king, a Pygmy working in a luxury hotel, a successful but lonely businessman, an enslaved porter, a young army deserter, a ghostly clarinetist. Some benefit from colonialism and greed. Others suffer racism and violence.
Dode Hoek (Blind Spot) is the story of Jan Verbeeck, the uncompromising commissioner of the Antwerp drug squad. Known as Mr. Zero Tolerance, he is hugely popular with the people and the media. The country is thrown into commotion when he announces that he is leaving the police force just before the elections to join the extreme right party, VPV. On his last day as a policeman, he leads an investigation that takes him to Charleroi where a raid on a drug lab sets in motion a series of unforeseeable and fatal events.
Max and Tikkelotje own an unsuccessful theatre company. When Tikkelotje notices Ramon - the faithful companion to Saint Nicholas - playing the guitar and singing, she decides to kidnap both him and Slechtweervandaag, Saint Nicholas’s trusty steed. Saint Nicholas is devastated, but eventually he pulls himself together and goes around the houses to collect the children’s wishlists. An adventure involving assorted people then ensues as he tried to beat the clock to rescue the hapless pair.
An eccentric multimillionaire signs an agreement to have his life ended. While selecting his coffin he meets a young woman who has signed up for the same arrangement. Trouble ensues when the couple falls in love and wishes to get out of the contract.
Young journalist Sebastian Zöllner is writing an article on artist Manuel Kaminski. Zöllner hopes that Kaminski dies soon, so that he can cash in on his article.
1985. Georges is a born market vendor. As a driven salesman he sells anything, anytime, to anyone. When he hears that the Pope is coming to Belgium, he smells his chance. In addition to the grounds, where tens of thousands of believers will attend an open-air mass, Cafe Derby is for rent. Georges is sure to earn a small fortune. But his wife and five children are not convinced. It would be another move in too short a time. But as George puts his mind to something... Café Derby tells the tragicomic story of a cheerful but slightly dysfunctional family, inspired by true events. Café Derby is the first feature film by Lenny Van Wesemael, a production of Menuet.
Colin, an ambitious young American businessman, has a deal with a potential client, a rich Arab sheikh who is a passionate pigeon fancier. The sheikh has tried several times to buy a champion pigeon, but the owner continues to stubbornly refuse his offer. In an attempt to gain the trust of the Sheikh, Colin offers him a deal: if he manages to convince the owner to sell the champion pigeon, the sheikh will agree to do business with Colin's company. But when Colin meets Jos, the grumpy owner of the pigeon, and Isabella, his granddaughter, he realizes that this mission will not be as easy as he had hoped.
Nine year old Finn lives with his father in a small town. Together with his best friend Erik he plays football, but he prefers to play music. His dad wants him to play football, just like every other kid his age. Finn does not understand why, but his father doesn't want to talk about it. When Finn meets a mysterious old man, who plays the violin beautifully, he decides to learn how to play the violin as well. The old man teaches him, while Finn's dad thinks he is playing football... Is Finn the only one who sees the magic of music? What does his father hide?
Marieke wants to live her life. But how can she succeed if love has been taken away from her? She seeks warmth in the arms of much older men to find the strength to face the past and finally be herself. Marieke is 20 years old. She lives with her mother, Jeanne, a woman left cold and distant ever since her husband died. During the day, Marieke works in a Brussels chocolate factory. At night, she escapes into the arms of much older men. With them she feels strong, cherished and free. The arrival of Jacoby, a book editor living abroad, searching for her father's last manuscript, upsets Marieke's precarious balance. Her mother does everything in her power to keep them apart. She fears that he will reveal the secret that has remained hidden for so many years. Marieke falls in love with Jacoby but devastated by the truth of her father's death, she sinks despair. Will she find the strength to accept the truth and live anew?
The poem well integrated in the film, was interpreted by writer/actor/painter Pjeroo Roobjee. The project is melting pot of poetry, animation and music resulting in a 20 minute short film.
Nova Zembla tells the gripping true story of the legendary failed mission of the late sixteenth century Dutch flotilla trying to find a trading route to Asia across the North Pole. The ship crew, who got stuck in the ice of Nova Zembla and had to survive the dark coldness of winter in the most gruesome of circumstances. An incredibly powerful story of determination, hardship and a triumph of the human spirit. The sixteenth century Dutch ship crew is leaving the port of Amsterdam and sailing to the northern arctic, where they get stuck in the ice. Two ships take part at the mission and captain De Rijp decides to return while he still can, while the other ship helmed by Willem Barentsz, stubbornly proceeds.
Sint and his mischievous assistant Zwarte Piet enjoy collecting children's letters at night, but lose a whole bag.
A frank and funny romantic comedy set in Antwerp, filmed in a quirkily inventive style, Madly in Love has a lot to say about human relationships. It focuses on the four women of the Miller family: teen daughter Eva, her mother Judith, aunt Barbara and older half-sister Michelle, as they work their way through the chaos called love. The result is a roller coaster ride of first crushes, lust, affairs, baby fever, and indestructible love. The four women are beautiful, courageous and sensible, but are also sometimes a bit lost. Can their male counterparts handle this dangerous cocktail of determination and female hormones?
The film starts with the main character Laura, a young woman with advanced cancer, entering quite upset the home of her parents and claiming to have stopped chemo therapy and having left her husband. The worried parents call the other three adult daughters into the house and they arrive one by one. For the first time in 6 years the entire family is united again. The characters are drawn as tensions rise from old conflicts and as the situation sinks in that Laura might be terminally ill. The movie eventually shifts from a lively sometimes comical beginning into the serious theme of dying and does handle this quite tactfully and moving. While the film touches on many areas surrounding death (including religion, graveyard, care, eutanasia) the main focus is on the transformation of the characters that are thrown out of their busy lifes into this situation, eventually accepting it and dealing with it.
In Sinteressante dingen, Professor Herman Van den Uytleg, professor of the interesting and speculative sciences, comments on the adventures of Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet. For example, Sint and Piet experience exciting stories on the steamer, they look for a solution for the sick Captain and much more!
A biography of the Belgian nun Jeannine Deckers, who became a popular singer in the early 1960s and struggled with the contradiction between the church and her true self.
Les Barons ont une devise : "glander plus pour vivre plus". Chaque être humain naît avec un crédit de pas. Chaque pas effectué te rapproche de la mort. Nous, les Barons, on le sait dès le départ.
The story of Stan Vandewalle, who's on his way to becoming a sports hero. On his way to the top he encounters many challenges: keeping up appearances, easy women, alcohol, drugs and money... lots of money.
Na bijna dertig jaar keert Germaine, Firmins grote liefde, plots terug naar haar geboortestad. Firmin is dolgelukkig en vastbesloten Germaine's hart te heroveren, maar Germaine wijst zijn avances af. En dan zoekt Mohammed Boutrous, een jonge en getalenteerde bokser, Firmin op. Hij wil dat Firmin hem traint. Firmin accepteert, in de hoop zo zijn eer én de liefde van zijn leven terug te winnen...
On the day of his forced retirement, a grumpy school principal decides, together with his neighbour, to search for a wife on the Internet...
Konraad, 83, has written a letter to his relatives saying he wants to die. Maria, Konraad's daughter and only child, refuses to discuss her fathers wish. Instead, she wants to move him to a flat for elderly people. Her two grown daughters Sabine and Eva have problems of their own. Sabine has a troubled marriage and her eldest daughter Haas is too wise for her age. Eva is in therapy, recovering from an abortion. Ernst, Marias husband, is the only one who takes an interest. He decides to help Konraad realize his last wish. In doing so, he crosses his wife and increases the already existing distance between them.
In the sequel to "Winky's Horse", 8-year old Winky looks after the horse of St Nicholas. Then one day the horse runs away.
This is a portrait of an old man who is kept locked up in the attic by his daughter with the excuse that outside it continuously rains. The man escapes in his imagination, carving wooden animals. Suddenly he realizes that the Flood is about to happen.
Cinema version of the 5 part TV series. During World War II, Stan Vandewalle saves boxing trainer Max from the bombed German war prisoners camp, and shoots two German soldiers while escaping. After the war, Stan resolves to put all his frustration over the death of his slow-witted brother Aloïs, who dreamed of becoming an opera singer, with his side-car against a farmer's truck in making come true Aloïs other dream, to see Stan becoming 'king of the world' as boxer.
Businessman Christian Vandenheuvel planned to spend the long weekend with his young mistress, Lisa. Instead, they're take hostage by Jos Diels and Nick, two of the 46 laborers who lost their job recently when Christian had his family film bankrupted. Each victim fails to escape, even the fire alarm doesn't get them freed. After Jos realizes the mistress is his only daughter, and Nick falls in love with Lisa, the masked men's mood evolves as they progress to truth time, when the police arrives.
March 11th, 2002. John R. takes the head of security and 17 others hostage in Amsterdam biggest skyscraper. John R. demands to speak with the Philips head of Sound&Vision. His goal is to warn people about a large-scale fraud, aimed at brainwashing consumers by means of widescreen TV sets. In the film, we find out about John's preliminary frustrations, his bizarre encounter with Philips head of Sound&Vision Gerard Wesselinck, their impossible friendship, rivalry and John's armed attempt to force the executive to do penance in public.
There is only one thing Winky wants: a horse, a real horse to ride. But horses are expensive. Fortunately it is the season of Sinterklaas; Winky just asks Sinterklaas for a horse. Than everything will work out alright. Or will it?
Cologne towards the end of the Second World War. The city is in ruins, everyone is afraid, many are dead. It is a time of great inhumanity. Cologne’s young Edelweiss Pirates refuse to submit to the pressure of the Nazi regime. They fight with the Hitler Youth and scrawl anti-war propaganda on walls. Karl is an Edelweiss Pirate; his younger brother, Peter, is in the Hitler Youth movement. The two young men have been alone ever since their mother’s death in a bombing raid; their father is serving at the front, and their older brother, Otto, has been killed in action. Otto’s financée, Cilly, is doing her best to survive the war with her children. Carl is trying to help her.
When Ruth's husband dies in New York, in 2000, she imposes strict Jewish mourning, which puzzles her children. A stranger comes to the house - Ruth's cousin - with a picture of Ruth, age 8, in Berlin, with a woman the cousin says helped Ruth escape. Hannah, Ruth's daughter engaged to a gentile, goes to Berlin to find the woman, Lena Fisher, now 90. Posing as a journalist investigating intermarriage, Hannah interviews Lena who tells the story of a week in 1943 when the Jewish husbands of Aryan women were detained in a building on Rosenstrasse. The women gather daily for word of their husbands. The film goes back and forth to tell Ruth and Lena's story. How will it affect Hannah?
Vincke and Verstuyft are one of the best detective teams of the Antwerp police force. When they are confronted with the disappearance of a top official and the murder of two prostitutes, the trail leads to the almost retired assassin Angelo Ledda. Since Ledda starts showing symptoms of Alzheimer's, it's getting more and more difficult to complete his contracts. When he has to murder a 12-year old call-girl, he refuses and becomes a target himself. While Vincke and Verstuyft are chasing him and counting the corpses, Ledda is taking care of his employers.
Armin is in crisis. One fateful day he discovers he is infertile and has been throughout his life. From this he discovers his first wife, Monika, was unfaithful before she died. How else could she have the child that Armin always thought was his? His paranoia drives him to find the truth.
Claire and Pierre's marriage hits the skids after Claire, pregnant with twins, feels that one embryo is crushing the other and decides to abort half the pregnancy.
An explicator of silent movies falls in love with the star of film he's accompanying.
In 1913, a young woman starts work as a maid in a seedy Parisian boarding house full of eccentrics. When she falls in love with one of the guests, she must choose between her son and her new romance.
A Flemish family comes together in their maternal home. Oscar, the grotesque patriarch, his bedridden wife Magda, his feeble son Johnny and his daughter Julia, who's married to a Moroccan soccer player. There's something wrong with Magda, who's not only plagued by her physical decay, but also by visions of her dead sister Marleen.
A story of friendship, love, crime and death. Against the backdrop of a large criminal investigation the lives of various characters involved get entangled. Meanwhile a vulture floats in the sky over the city, observing and being watched.
A family film, based on a well-known Dutch story from the Middle Ages. Mariken tells the compelling and poetic story of spirited young girl named Mariken. The orphan Mariken lives in a secluded forest with an eccentric old hermit. One day, she decides to leave her surroundings and sets off for town to buy a new goat. On her adventurous journey into the 'real' world, she finds out about the good and bad sides of people.
The film is based on the popular Dutch childrens book by Chris van Abkoude. In a Dutch port in 1921 lives a 10-year-old orphan boy known to everyone simply as Little Crumb. His poverty-stricken mother Lize van Dien filled with shame was forced to turn him over to Mrs. Koster soon after he was born. Foster mother Mrs. Koster, who has cared for him since he was a baby, is very poor too, unable to support him by herself and proves to be a cruel taskmaster who insists Crumb bring her money before shell feed him. Somehow he must earn his keep out on the streets and can only go home after he has earned enough money. Crumb becomes an urchin stealing from the streets barrows and the shops to stay alive, sleeping in churches or huddled in doorways. Sometimes he has to run off from the police and he has earned the enmity of the most grownups around him.
The true story of the 19th century Belgian priest, Father Damien, who volunteered to go to the island of Molokai, to console and care for the lepers.
The tale of the extraordinary life and times of Lucky, a horse that was born in captivity but achieves his dream of running free with the help of a stableboy.
Kulderzipken is a Flemish television series that premiered in 1995. Two seasons of ten episodes each have been made since then.
On a Belgian beach at Camping Cosmos. The delegate send by the Ministry is confronted with sex and murder. The residents enjoy their holidays in a peculiar way...
After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.
A police officer investigates the case of a man shot dead in a room locked from the inside. A suicide? Then where's the gun?
In the 1890s, Father Adolf Daens goes to Aalst, a textile town where child labor is rife, pay and working conditions are horrible, the poor have no vote, and the Catholic church backs the petite bourgeoisie in oppressing workers. He writes a few columns for the Catholic paper, and soon workers are listening and the powerful are in an uproar. He's expelled from the Catholic party, so he starts the Christian Democrats and is elected to Parliament. After Rome disciplines him, he must choose between two callings, as priest and as champion of workers. In subplots, a courageous young woman falls in love with a socialist and survives a shop foreman's rape; children die; prelates play billiards.
Dag Sinterklaas was a Flemish television program with Bart Peeters who goes every day visit St. Nicholas and Zwarte Piet in a castle, their temporary abode when they are in Belgium to hand out presents on the sixth of December. St. Nicholas has a horse named Slecht Weer Vandaag.
The Heylen family's annual get-together to commemorate their mother derails completely.
Placide's dad tells him on his deathbed he'll haunt Placide if he doesn't find a wife soon. Placide cautiously agrees, but he only wants to settle for a very beautiful woman. That might be easier said than done, since he is a vagabond. When he accidentally enters a photo shoot, Placide meets Sarah. He falls in love, but she is way out of his reach.
The family patriarch Van Paemel is a farmer on baron de Wilde's estate. His mild-mannered son Désire is accidentally shot during a hunting party on the estate and remains an invalid. Eduard, the eldest son, is a member of the socialist workers' movement and involved in strike actions in the city. Against her father's wishes, his daughter Cordule starts an affair with the poacher Masco. His youngest daughter, Romanie, is forced to work as a domestic servant at the castle, where she is seduced by Maurice, the baron's son and heir, and becomes pregnant. When the youngest son Kamiel also has to leave the farm because he is drafted into the army, the lack of workers on Van Paemel's farm becomes critical. As a result, the family is evicted from their home because they cannot pay the rent. Three of the children emigrate to the USA, one becomes a nun and one dies, until only the farmer and his wife remain.
A tale centered on the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302 where the Flemish rank and file won a major victory over the glorious French knights.
When Anna, a twenty-eight-year-old photographer, is put in charge of a report on the restoration works at The Ostend Museum of Modern Art, she discovers by chance five paintings signed Constant Permeke, whose power and mystery move and fascinate her.She decides to embark on a quest to find out about who Permeke actually was, the places where he lived, how he worked, what experiences he went through.
He's the "Rocky" of the 15th century-defender of the poor, enemy of evil, champion of justice. He's fearless and the strongest man in the land. He's ready and willing to take on all wrong doers-rich and poor. Accompanied by a lovable, meek little friend, his quest takes him on an unforgettable journey. Swamp monsters, knights in armor, duels, royal pageantry, and damsels in distress all abound in this story of timeless values. In the spirit of "Robin Hood," it's a robust, romantic tale: a feast for the eyes and a joy for the heart.
Following over two dozen different people in the almost wordless atmosphere of a dark night in a Brussels town, Akerman examines acceptance and rejection in the realm of romance.
Antwerp. Someone is making a feature film. After shooting the scenes on location, the filmmaker wanders to the railway station. He's having difficulties with his material, it's a commissioned film. The story is giving him trouble too. But he cannot abandon the project. He now wants to introduce a male character so that he can explain his problems.
A forty-year-old man loses his work and is unemployed. There is a continual coming and going between uncomfortable in his own skin unemployed person, his mistress - a middle-class - and an exuberant and fragile girl.
At the deathbed of his used-to-be militant mother an older man looks back at his childhood, when he was in love with his sensual aunt Coleta.
Psychodrama. Black and white images of a mining area under the influence of a highly orthodox Catholicism in the 1930s are interspersed with color images of a protest action to save a small church.
First feature film from director Guido Henderickx. During a 24-hour period an intense drama unfolds between former lovers during local fair.
In 1833, when the fledgling Belgian kingdom still fears a Dutch invasion, recruits were selected annually from an age cohort by a draw of lots in each locality. In this grim, then contemporary drama by the 'father of Flemish literature', Hendrik Conscience, Jan Braems, a poor and naive farmers-boy, accepts the not uncommon offer by a rich family to sell his lucky ticket (out) to their son for a hefty sum compared to the miserable labor wages at the time. Army life is even harsher then a farmhand's, especially for a Dutch-speaking an-alphabet who simply can't understand his francophone superiors, and Jan's nature is not complacent enough for military discipline even by todays standards, so he soon gets into all kinds of trouble, including gambling his capital away and a venereal disease. When his girlfriend back home goes looking for him, her life is doomed as well.
Tomasz , a young Polish refugee wanders through Antwerp, looking for the woman who helped him to get his mother through the Iron Curtain. During his search he meets alcoholics, vagrants and other outcasts of the society.
After World War I, widower Renier has returned to his estate Horlebecq. His sole diversion is his correspondence with the Parisian Rolande, who he met during the war. Even though his family is pressuring him into marrying his sister-in-law Emily, Renier stays obsessed with Rolande and even visits her in Paris. She manages to persuade him to invest large sums of money into the "Academie de Beauté" in Paris. His reckless investments and breaking off his engagement with Emily leads to unbearable tensions at Horlebecq...
The wife of a local dictator gets a miscarriage during a failed assault by rebels. The dictators' brother suggesst to present the newly born baby of one a the dead rebels as his posterity.
Political pamphlet in which the theories of Marxist Ernest Mandel are contrasted with the soothing parlance of political leader Paul van den Boeynants. Furthermore, the flow of 'left dogmatism' is alternated with cinematic and musical anecdotes.
Jules Claus has embraced Christmas again and is getting ready for the busiest time of the year together with grandpa Noël. Everything seems to go according to plan, until Jules receives a very special letter with an intriguing question.. The Claus Family 2 is a cozy film for the entire family to enjoy, starring some incredible Dutch and Flemish talent.
In this filmed version of Flemish author Jef Gheeraerts' novel, Robert 'Robbe' Parain, an arrogant Antwerp police detective who operates at the limits of illegality and is in personal debt, tenaciously traces but also gets personally entangled in the dark, ruthless, criminal sides of the publicly so glamorous trade in diamonds, notably in his native Antwerp, Hong Kong, Brussels and Congo.
