Belgium

The Broken Circle Breakdown is an unexpectedly beautiful musical parable about the contradictions of the universe. Rooted almost completely in a reality that seems like our own, it strips down the tropes of the Hollywood musical to paint an effective portrait of love, despair and pain. Elise and Didier fall in love, they sing together in a band, they have a beautiful daughter and then she falls ill; changing all what they knew about the universe. Using a non-linear format and beautifully utilized musical sequences, the film paints an exaggerated portrait of faith and love in the face of chaos.

North Sea, Texas Directed by Bavo Defurne Written by Bavo Defurne and Yves Verbraeken Belgium, 2011 A wistful mother and her seventeen-year-old son take in a gypsy traveler as a house patron. After a slew of ceremonious courtesies, the mother and her son pit themselves against each other, in hopes of seducing the same man. …

Bullhead Written and Directed by Michael R. Roskam Belgium, 2011 In French, it translates to, “me parlez-vous?” In Dutch, it’s “spreekt u aan me?” Set in Belgium, with dialogue in Dutch and French, Michael R. Roskam’s Bullhead is a taut, uncompromising character study and organized crime thriller that masterfully translates Scorsese’s magnum opus quote, ‘are …