ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Cinematographer Cape, Yves

Executive Producer Bouchareb, Rachid

Executive Producer Brahat, Jean

Film Editor Lecorne, Guy

Producer Bouchareb, Rachid

Producer Brehat, Jean

Screenwriter Dumont, Bruno

Sound Lecoeur, Philippe

Production Company 3B Productions

Principal Cast Boidin, Samuel

Principal Cast Bruveart, Jean-Marie

Principal Cast Cretel, Henri

Principal Cast Leroux, Adélaïde

Principal Cast Poulain, David

DESCRIPTION

TIFF NOTE

Bruno Dumont's Flandres begins by imagining the lumpen existence of young farmers in Northern France, captured in particular in their animalistic attitudes towards sex and work. The film then thrusts them in the middle of an unnamed war in the Middle East. Typical of Dumont's style, scenes of brutal violence and minutely detailed sex are captured in placid long takes, making Flandres as provocative and singular a war film as can be imagined. The story begins in the same terrain as Dumont's 1999 triumph, L'Humanité. Demester (Samuel Boidin) is a rugged, bullish young farmer who joylessly trysts in the woods with Barbe (Adélaïde Leroux), a beautiful and promiscuous local girl. One day, Demester and a group of similarly downtrodden friends are drafted and unceremoniously sent off to fight in a war in an unspecified desert landscape. The out-of-place men are not only exposed to the most obscene atrocities but actively participate in them, in scenes that are wrenching. The escalating violence is woven with interludes of Barbe back home in France, waiting for Demester's return while suffering calamities of her own. The film draws the couple back together in a powerful conclusion that leaves one questioning how their trials by fire have affected these impassive souls. Dumont expertly employs the keystones of realist cinema - non-professional actors, naturalistic lighting and sound recording, no special effects - and magnifies their intensity until they take on mythic, even metaphysical proportions. Avowedly anti-intellectual, Dumont seeks to affect audiences on a visceral, tactile level with his work; his characters have a brazen, grimy materiality that is almost bestial. This juxtaposition of the hardscrabble Middle Eastern theatre of war - these scenes were shot in Tunisia - and the lush farmlands of Flanders, once battlescarred themselves, brings the weight of history to bear on this epic, challenging work.

FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING HISTORY

TIFF CINEMATHEQUE PROGRAMMING HISTORY

TIFF YEAR-ROUND PROGRAMMING HISTORY

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FRL-82586 research file