06/10/2021 - The Flemish filmmaker will soon start shooting his 4th feature film, adapted from Geert Taghon’s novel of the same name

18 October will see filming begin on Koen Mortier’s latest movie Skunk [+see also:
film review
interview: Thibaud Dooms
film profile]. The Flemish director made his name in 2007 with the radical movie Ex-Drummer [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was selected for the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Tiger Award Competition. He then went on to set the standard for an uncompromising brand of cinema by way of 22nd of May [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Angel [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Koen Mortier
film profile], both presented in Toronto.

Mortier is continuing in this vein with his new project, an adaption of a book by Geert Taghon, heavily based on his experience as a social worker, which follows the fate of a family who are dysfunctional, to put it mildly, and whose daily existence is marked by alcohol, sex and violence. Their life is seen through the eyes of a young hero, Liam, a neglected teen who, after spending years locked up in a damp basement, relentlessly watching the same film, and endless bullying at school, winds up in a detention centre where he tries to find comfort with his fellow inmates, and some horses.

Newcomer Thibaud Dooms plays the part of Liam, notably flanked by Natali Broods (recently seen in Cleo [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Façades [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Boris Van Severen and Dirk Roofthooft.

For the film’s photography, the director is once again joining forces with Nicolas Karakatsanis, who previously collaborated on Angel and who’s alternating Belgian projects by established authors (readers will remember his collaboration with Mortier, but he also worked with Michael Roskam on Bullhead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bart Van Langendonck
interview: Michaël R. Roskam
film profile] and Racer and the Jailbird [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Roskam
film profile], as well as with Bas Devos on Hellhole [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bas Devos
film profile]) with international productions along the lines of I Tonya and Cruella, and more recently, The Mad Women’s Ball [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Mélanie Laurent.

In charge of editing, we find Martin Leroy alongside Nico Leunen (whose name graced the credits of Mortiers earlier work and who’s also the go-to editor for Fien Troch and Felix Van Groeningen).

Skunk is produced by Eurydice Gysel and Koen Mortier on behalf of Czar Film, in co-production with Frank Hoeve and Katja Draaijer for Baldr Film (the Netherlands). September Film will manage the film’s release in the Benelux countries.

(Translated from French)