Madonna's Pig

Two Flemish films have been selected for the 15th EU Film Festival in Chicago: Hilde Van Mieghem’s Madly in Love and Frank Van Passel’s Madonna’s Pig. The EU Film Festival is held annually and aims to give Chicago's cinema-going public a taste of European cinema.

Madly in Love has competed in competitions at numerous international festivals, winning prestigious awards along the way, including the LA Femme International Film Festival’s Best Foreign Film Award and the Best Film Award at California's Broad Humor Film Festival. In Europe the film toured Hamburg, Funchal (Portugal) and Bergen (Norway) among others. The producers also confirmed remake plans for the film in both The Netherlands and the US.

The 32^nd Oporto International Film Festival (24 Febr – 3 March) has invited works from no less than four Flemish filmmakers for its line-up. Frank van Passel’s Madonna’s Pig, Jakob Verbruggen’s Code 37, Nuru, a short by Michael Palmaers, and Christophe Van Rompaey's Lena have been selected for Fest.

Code 37 became an instant box office hit in its home territory when released last fall. The film was running alongside Madonna’s Pig and Geoffrey Enthoven’s Come As You Are in theatres and together the films even managed to register over 80,000 admissions during one weekend. The film is to receive its market première at this year's European Film Market in Berlin. Code 37 director Jakob Verbruggen is now also set to direct the BBC mini-series The Fall, written by the BAFTA nominated Alan Cubitt.

Flemish films locally registered a total of 80,000-plus admissions in the 11 November weekend. Both Code 37 – the film and Come As You Are (Hasta la vista) continue to perform strong at the local box office, each of them now having passed the 200,000-admission mark, while Frank Van Passel’s return to the big screen, Madonna’s Pig, had a good start.

Both Code 37 – the film and Come As You Are passed the 200,000-admission mark this weeking, reaching Platinum Award status in Flanders. While Come As You Are is in its nineth week of release, Code 37 opened three weeks ago. Both titles continue to draw large audiences to the cinema. Code 37 – the film ended second at the local, following Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin.

A decade separates Villa des Roses and Madonna’s Pig, Frank Van Passel’s latest film. But he says it doesn’t feel like he’s been away. ‘I didn’t stop directing over the past 10 years, but it’s true that I stopped making feature films,’ he says. Instead he made prize-winning television drama, shot commercials and started the production company now known as Caviar. ‘That took a lot of time, but now Caviar has a life of its own I can go back to where my heart is.’

Text: Ian Mundell; Portrait: Bart Dewaele

After Villa des Roses Van Passel decided he should take some time out to think before making another feature. ‘In a certain sense I was happy with the film, but I can’t deny that it wasn’t the biggest success,’ he says. ‘Its ambitions were greater than its final achievements, and that’s not good. As a filmmaker, that’s the moment to start asking questions about where it went wrong.’ Madonna’s Pig is the result of that reflection. ‘I’ve gone back to a local story, a Flemish speaking story, to things that are closer to me,’ he explains. ‘And I’m more in control, not only of the content of the film but also of the production surrounding it.’