When we play at home, we hope to shine. This is always the wish of the whole Wallimage team at the approach of the Namur FIFF which expects to see a copious selection of films co-financed by the fund. This year, our wishes have been fulfilled with a very nice line-up of titles and even a day dedicated to the work of Wallimage filming. Enthusiasm !
To start this 34th edition with a bang, the FIFF has decided to bet on Chambre 212, the latest feature film by Christophe Honorez, which was presented at the Cannes Film Festival where Chiara Mastroianni won the interpretation prize in the Un certain regard section. Co-produced in Belgium by Scope Pictures, this whimsical romantic comedy that flirts with the fantastic benefits from a formidable cast and is indisputably the prototype of the ideal film to launch the festival : sparkling, intelligent, original. Everything you would expect from an opening film !
Monday September 30th will be partly dedicated to Wallimage Tournages which will present to the public its work in the service of filming in our beautiful region. A magnificent case study, Three Days and a Life will be screened at 3pm in the presence of its director, the always fascinating Nicolas Boukrieff. This new adaptation of a novel by Pierre Lemaître, which will be released in theaters on September 18, will be used as a support for a meeting with some of the Belgian technicians present on the set of this film, which has become, due to the circumstances of the production, the persuasive power of Umedia and an excellent work of location scouting, an authentically Belgian work, located both in its logistics and in the script in Olloy-sur-Viroin. Sandrine Bonnaire, Pablo Pauly, Charles Berling and Philippe Torreton are full of praise for the hospitality of the locals who lived for over a month at the pace of a shoot that (*spoiler) turned the village upside down.
In the evening, the spectator will be invited to the Wallimage gala. Scope Pictures will propose Un monde plus grand by Fabienne Berthaud with Cécile de France. Inspired by Corine Sombrun’s own experience, described in her book My Initiation with the Shamans, A Bigger World has just been presented at the Venice Festival in the Venice Days – Giornate degli Autor section. We discover a young woman in mourning who went to Mongolia to visit reindeer herders to record traditional songs. Her encounter with the shaman Oyun turns her journey and her life upside down when she is told that she has received a rare gift and must be trained in shamanic traditions.
The next day, the Namur public (and beyond, of course) will be able to avidly watch Fabrice Du Welz’s new feature film, Adoration, which had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in front of more than 4000 spectators. In this film of mad love, Paul, a lonely young boy, meets Gloria, the new patient of the psychiatric clinic where his mother works. He will run away with her, far from the adult world. For better or for worse. The space of a film still produced by Panique, which closes his Ardennes trilogy (Calvary and Alleluia), Fabrice Du Welz moves away from the dark and unhealthy climates he likes for a dive into a brighter universe, which, do not worry, has nothing sweet or silly …
In a school session for the Fiff campus and on the 2nd at 2:15 pm in a family session, the FIFF will present Fritzi, histoire d’une révolution, an animated film co-produced here by Artemis and partly made at Mikros Liège. The film is scheduled for a Belgian release on November 6, just three days before the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, on November 9. Fritzi tells the story of the last days of a family’s life in East Germany when the history of the world is about to change.
Thursday 8pm at Cameo 1, My Father’s Forest by Vero Cratzborn, will be on the bill for the Wallonia night. Gina, 15 years old, grows up in a loving family with her father Jimmy whom she admires. Even though he is unpredictable and whimsical, she is willing to forgive all excesses. When the situation becomes untenable, Gina joins forces with a teenager from her neighborhood to try to save what can still be saved. First feature film of the director after a long series of shorts, this film developed under the title Les Chatelains, is produced by Iota and was shot in the Charleroi region.
Add to this substantial program that the school sessions will also feature The young Ahmed, Continue and Fany’s Journey and you get a spicy Walloon cocktail, with contrasting and surprising tastes, which will be discovered partly at the Cameo and partly at the Delta, the entirely renovated Namurian house of culture which will be reinaugurated on September 21 and 22, 2019.
