Un jour les témoins disparaîtront

Less Dead Than the Others

Frans Buyens's moving and inventive film is based on his own autobiographical novel, which deals in the most sensitive terms possible with the subject of euthanasia.

In naam van de Führer

This film deals with the fate of children during the Second World War. The Nazis divided children into two categories: “the good ones,” the Aryan children, and “the bad ones,” the others. In the name of ultranationalism, Nazism, the theory of the Übermensch, and racism, Aryan children were mentally indoctrinated, while the others were imprisoned in camps and physically destroyed. These “others” were mainly children from non-Aryan and supposedly impure races: Jews, Poles, Russians, Yugoslavs, and Roma. For this film, Lydia Chagoll conducted research in World War II documentation centers, museums, and concentration camp archives in several countries, collecting texts, documents, and photographs. The film consists of a montage of photos and footage filmed by the Nazis themselves, accompanied by voice-over commentary based entirely on quotations from Nazi publications, laws, decrees, directives, newspapers, schoolbooks, reports, and political texts.

Frits Van den Berghe

A compilation film, divided into four separate segments, that explores the life and work of the Flemish expressionist painter Frits Van den Berghe (1883–1939). What makes this inspired art film special is that director Buyens does not use a voice-over or commentary text, a deliberate choice intended to give the viewer the opportunity to discover and interpret the painter’s world on their own. Another striking feature is its stripped-down soundtrack, featuring music by Arsène Souffriau.

Waar de vogeltjes hoesten

'Waar de vogelstjes hoesten' is a rare, satirical fable presented as a fantasy musical. The film tells the surreal love story of a flower girl and a scarecrow who leave their rural home for the big city. Upon arrival, they quickly become corrupted by industrial capitalism and victims of their own growing greed. Featuring unique choreography by Lydia Chagoll, this experimental production serves as a powerful artistic critique. It explicitly warns against the degradation of the environment and the spiritual pollution of modern human society.

Sarah dit... Leïla dit...

This film deals with the experiences of children in concentration camps. The more so because it discloses, above all, circumstances that have hitherto been almost completely untold, namely the fate of children in the camps under the Japanese occupation during World War II. It's a meeting between two women who, when children, were prisoners in concentration camps. One of them was deported to Auschwitz when she was 13 and remained there for two years; the other was interned in a Japanese camp in Indonesia when she was 11 and stayed there for more than three years. The two women talk, each reliving their experiences through a child's heart and soul.

Duo-portret

La petite peau blanche...

Voor een glimlach van een kind