Always relevant, original and deeply Walloon, the films of the Dardenne brothers have become THE calling card of our region. The Palme d’Or won in Cannes in 2005, following the one that crowned Rosetta, and Olivier Gourmet’s acting award for Le Fils, ensure that these cutting-edge productions have a real international success, making Les Films du Fleuve the champion of Wallimage’s revenue increases!
Moreover (and as usual), the Walloon expenses are very high thanks to the concentrated shooting on the Meuse river and to the majority of the Walloon technicians, who are faithful to the Dardennes. For the first time, on the other hand, the realization, slightly more expensive, took place in 35mm. But the financing was well conceived both in terms of guaranteed minimums clearly below the film’s potential and in terms of the freedom of work granted to the directors.
As a winning team never changes, Les Films du Fleuve decided to work again with the production and distribution partners of Le Fils, but Wallimage increases its “weight” in the co-production by 50%.
The child is also the occasion of a particularly successful reunion between the brothers and Jérémie Renier, whom they had revealed in The Promise. The icing on the cake is that this film offers two young Walloon actors a wonderful springboard role! We will soon see Déborah François and Jeremy Segard on the big screens…