4 years after Violet [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], his first feature – which won an award at Berlin in the Generation 14plus section – the Flemish filmmaker Bas Devos returns with Hellhole [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Bas Devos
scheda film], a story about different people living in Brussels, told via a series of home visits made by a GP to various suffering individuals lost in the European capital. The film will take part in the Panorama section at the next Berlinale (7 to 17 February 2019).

Brussels, European capital, 2016. Doctor Wannes’ home visits include trips to see the young Moroccan Mehdi, who reminds him of his own son, Joris – a fighter pilot on a mission in the Middle East – and an Italian woman called Alba, an interpreter for the European Parliament, looking for a way out of her loneliness and lethargy, mainly via drugs.

As the title suggests, the film is about modern Brussels, a disenchanted portrait of a city ravaged by attacks, soldiers on the streets and homeless refugees wandering around the city centre... A multi-faceted city of paradoxes.

In the role of the doctor is Willy Thomas (Vele Hemels, Fallow [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film]), starring alongside Hamsa Belarbi, in his on-screen debut, and the actresses Alba Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Alice Rohrwacher
scheda film], Lucia's Grace [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film], Ishmaël's Ghosts [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
Q&A: Arnaud Desplechin
scheda film]) and Lubna Azabal (Tel Aviv on Fire [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Sameh Zoabi
scheda film], Sofia [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Meryem Benm'Barek
scheda film], Lola Pater [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film]).

As with his first feature, the director has entrusted the film’s photography to chief operator Nicolas Karakatsanis (Angel [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Koen Mortier
scheda film], I, Tonya, Racer and the Jailbird [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Michael Roskam
scheda film]), with whom he previously worked on his first feature, Violet. Hellhole was produced by Tomas Leyers, who also produced Violet for Minds Meet, after previously producing Lost Persons Area [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Caroline Strubbe (selected at Cannes Critics' Week in 2009) and Little Baby Jesus of Flandr [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Gust Van Den Berghe (selected at the Directors' Fortnight in 2010). Leyers also recently co-produced In Syria [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Philippe Van Leeuw
scheda film] by Philippe Van Leeuw (Panorama section at Berlin in 2017).