BELGIAN ‘VITRIVAL’ OFFERS A SLICE OF LIFE MYSTERY WITH A DARK EDGE

The Small Belgian Community of Vitrival, with A Population of AROUND 1,500, Finds Itself with a Much Higher Profile Tese Days. That is courtesy of Vitrival – The MOST BEAUTIFUL Village in the WorldThe Debut Feature From Belgian Writers-Directors Noële Bastin, Who Grew Up There, and Baptiste Bogaret. If You Wonder What to Expert, Well, The Movie, Which World Premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival Earlier this Year, Doesn’t Fit Neatly Into Tradioratic Catel.

Is it codic? Definitely, As ITS Departments of Small-Toown Life in a Real-Life Belgian Village Will Make You Chuckle. Does it have Dramatic Elements? For Sure, Given A Wave of Suicides That Plagues The Village. Does It Provide a Healthy Serving of Slice of Life? YES. After all, it follows two polic officers, who are are cousins, driving around and interacting with of inhabitants. Does it mix reality and fiction? Totally. Among Other Things, Key Roles in the Film Are Portrayed by Real-Life Inhabitants of the Village, Including Members of Bastin’s Family.

But The Filmmakers Aren’t Too Conceerned with Classification. “FOR US, IT’S JUST LIFE,” Bogaeret Tells Thr. “YOU CAN CRY IN THE MORNING AND YOU CAN LAUGH IN THE AFTERNOON.” In Fact, Focusing Too Much on Old Genre Labels Could Prove A Disservice To Film Fans. Some Audiences Who Come Expecting A Pure Comedy May Actual End Up “A BIT DisAPPOINTED BECAUSE IS NOT ALL THAT Funny,” Argues Bogaret. “There Are Funny Parts in It, But It’s Not A ‘HA Ha Ha’ Movie All The Way.”

ND Pictures Has Just Taken the Movie for the Belux Region, with A Theatric Release Set for Nov. 12.

Now, VitrivalA Naoko Films Production, Is Getting Ita Premiere in the Main Competition Program of the 15th Edition of the Beijing International Festival on Tuesday, while FilmMakers.

Onir First-Hever Trip Outside of Europe, They Look Forward to seeing How Audiences React to Their Story Set in Belgium. “I’M Really Curios, Especialyly If The Audence Will Laugh,“ Bastin Tells Thr. “We don’T Know How The Audience Will React, Because We Don’t Have Any Idea of ​​the Cultural Differences,” Adds Bogaret.

Still, The Beijing Stop on the Film Festival Circuit Means That Vitrival Gets to Play On a Big Stage and Showcase It Titular Village Far Beyond Belgium’s Borders.

How about a screening of the Movie in the Village Itelf? “Unfortunately, It Has Not Happy Yet. It Will Go Three Soon, But Not Yet,“ Bastin Tells Thr. “BUT Some of the People From The Village Came to Rotterdam.”

The Group of AROUND 20 INCLUDED THE NEPORLE PORTRAYING The MAIN Characters and Bastin’s Parents, Aunts, and Cousins. “IT was a big delegation,” Says Bogaret, Who Grew Up Nearby, with A Laugh. And Their Reaction Was Positive. “They Really Enjoed It,” Shares Bastin. “They Thought It Was A Good Picture. Since they are from the village, they were laughing about a lot to small deetails.”

But a series of mysterious Suicides, and the repeated appearannce of graffiti depicting a certain male body party on houses and even a church, Didn’t Draw Much. “We Thounga It Was A Bit Strange Thaty Didn’t Focus at All On the Suicide Part,” Recalls Bastin, Concluding that Were More Curies to Seeir Hometown and Life Depicted.

The Suicides Were An Element That Was One of the Original Drivers Behind the Project, As The Filmmaker Duo and Real-Life Couple Initially Thought About Adapting ABOUT ABOUT ABOUT A WOVOUT A WOVUL Direction. “IT WAS AN INTERESTING TOPIC FOR US,” BASTIN TELLS Thr. Adds Bogaeret: “One of the Things that Interared Us Was that Suicide is a personal Issue. But WHEN more INDIVIDALS DIE HAI Obernate The Environment, The Gestures, The World, and The Behaviors.

As Observers, The Filmmaking Duo Was Also Curious to Explore How Life Goes on. “WHEN YOU Are Part of the Village and Take Part in your Daily Life, of Course, You Can Be Shocked by A Suicide or More Than One Suicide,“ Bastin Says. “BUT YOU HAVE TO MOVE FORWARD. AS A VIEVER, YOU HAVE TIME TO THINK About the Suicides Because you are not in your Daily Life. So that was was interesting for us.”

The Film is Also Something of A Police Procedural in the Way It Explores Is The Day-To-Day Work The Police Mustd O. “The Two Policemen Are Local Agents, So They Are Not Investigators,“ Highlights Bastin. “And they don’t face murders, but suicides. SO THESE Are Cases That Cannot Be Solved.”

Bogaret and Bastin Are Already Working on A New Feature, This Time Inspired by the Belgian City of Charleroi, WHERE – YOU GUESSED IT! – Bogaret Grew Up. The City Has An Industrial Past, Along With The Challenges this Brings Today. The Duo Doesn’t Have An Official Title to Unveil Yet or Full Details. But Bogaert Has this Tease to Share: “We Follow The Characters in Their Daily Lives, But They Confronted by a Catastrophe – An Explosion of Coal Waste.”