Souvenir Publication Bullhead

Belgium’s official Academy Awards® entry

By MICHAËL R. ROSKAM

JEROEN PERCEVAL

JEANNE DANDOY

BARBARA SARAFIAN

SAM LOUWYCK

a film by MichaĂŤl R. Roskam

Young cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsenille (Matthias Schoenaerts) is approached by an unscrupulous veterinarian to make a shady deal with a notorious beef trader.

But the assassination of a federal policeman and an unexpected confrontation with a mysterious secret from Jacky’s past set in motion a chain of events with far-reaching consequences.

Bullhead is an emotionally driven tale of revenge, redemption and fate set against the backdrop of the Belgian bovine hormone mafia.

It is an exciting tragedy about fate, lost innocence and friendship, about crime and punishment, but also about conflicting desires and the irreversibility of a man’s destiny.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT Bullhead is a complex contemporary tragedy with strong comic as well as grotesque elements, typical of my work. The main references for my filmic universe are the Coen brothers, Akira Kurosawa and Quentin Tarantino. It is crucial to understand that the heaviness of this contemporary film noir/tragedy that deals with age-old questions as well as with contemporary issues is balanced against two very strong counter-forces. On the one hand humor, grotesque scenes and dialogues, local settings and dialects, on the other hand the visual aspect of the movie and strong acting performances.

The script is tightly organized around a core idea that is explored in various directions that exceed the literal level: manhood and masculine virtues like courage/ cowardice, hormones and the question of nature/artifice. In this way, a story set in the contemporary environment of the hormones-trade acquires the characteristics of a classical tragedy. The protagonists are driven by Fate or Destiny against which they are to a certain extent powerless. The story is triggered when Fate brings two damaged characters, Jacky and Diederik, back together through their involvement in the illegal hormone trade. It is the chemistry of this accidental meeting that is the inciting incident of the tragic evolution of the film.

The focus is not so much on the psychological development of the characters as on the ethical dilemma’s they face: friendship, revenge, betrayal and manhood.

Both Jacky and Diederik have clear goals. Jacky’s goal is to regain a sense of being a man in the fullest sense of the word. Despite all the hormones he has been taking, he cannot repair what has been taken from him. Unfortunately, the abuse of hormones has affected his personality and turned the hurted little boy into an aggressive ‘beast’. After the meeting with Diederik, Jacky tries to recover some of his lost manhood and humanity by going back to Lucia, the girl he fancied when he was still a normal boy. Because of his lack of control, his quest – like the tragic hero’s – is doomed to fail. Diederik, the antagonist, is not an opponent of Jacky: he is not blamed by Jacky, but he blames himself. Like Jacky, he is also marked by the traumatic events of the past. His goal is that he has to come to terms with his cowardice, even doubled by his father’s betrayal and suicide.

Diederik’s homosexuality, which is necessarily hidden in the gangster milieu, helps us understand the depth of his feelings for his childhood friend Jacky. All these motivations and emotions are shown rather than explained.

Michaël R. Roskam

‘Fate shows itself, therefore, in the view of life, as condemned, as having essentially first been condemned and then become guilty.’

Walter Benjamin

‘Bullhead is a film about people being driven to extremes. It is not about cowboys and Indians, about good or evil, but about how seemingly small events can sometimes have huge consequences for the people involved. Their fate is also their destiny.’

Michaël R.Roskam

INTERVIEW with Michaël R. Roskam

A tragic tale of destiny and innocence Early on in Michaël R. Roskam’s Bullhead there is a shot of the main character Jacky sitting on the edge of a bath in the near dark. It’s an image eerily reminiscent of paintings by Lucian Freud or Francis Bacon. It is often said of these artists that they depict the human body as if it is a lump of flesh in an abattoir. In Bullhead, set in the world of hormone smuggling, the slaughterhouse isn’t just a metaphor. The world that Jacky inhabits is one in which cattle are injected with drugs that make them grow quicker so that they can be killed quicker and more profitably.

Text Geoffrey Macnab |

Portrait Rudy Lamborday

In the late 1990s, a vet was murdered in Belgium because he pried too closely into what was happening in the slaughterhouses. He had stumbled on a scheme to fatten livestock artificially - and illegally. The farmers behind it intimidated and bribed anyone in a position to reveal what they were doing. The police were slow to respond. After all, you don’t expect the agricultural world to be a hotbed of Mafia corruption. When the vet had exposed the farmers, they had had to destroy the bulls which had been fattened. They were furious at losing lots of money. That’s why the vet was killed.

Roskam studied the case in great detail. No, Bullhead isn’t based directly on what happened. This is fiction, after all. However, he freely acknowledges that this notorious case was one of the inspirations for his movie. ‘For me, Bullhead is like a tragedy,’ the writer-director muses. ‘It’s a tragic tale of destiny and innocence. I’ve always been fascinated by the American gangster films. I love them! I wanted to do one in my own way, on my own soil, with my own background.’

strange rituals Roskam realised it would be utterly implausible to make a Godfather-style gangster pic in Belgium. ‘It doesn’t really exist,’ he says of the type of brooding, Italian-American mafia bosses played by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. Of course, Belgium has crime. By honing in on the close-knit world of the ‘bovine hormone mafia’, he hoped to find a local equivalent to the Corleones and their sidekicks.

Bullhead has a conventional thriller narrative. There are cops, informers and plenty of heavies. However, this is as much a psychological character study as it is a gangster pic. Jacky has been deeply traumatised in childhood. As an adult, he has transformed himself into a bulky, muscle-bound and very imposing figure.

No one messes with him. At the same time, Roskam insists, the character has an innocence and even an idealism about him.

As a youngster, Roskam spent a few months working on a farm in the area where the film is set. He knew the milieu inside out. It’s a tough and unforgiving world.

‘But there are different social levels,’ he remembers. He was lucky enough to be employed by ‘gentleman farmers’ who were prepared to hire student workers.

There are some strange rituals in rural Flanders. When men are still unmarried in their 30s, they are often relentlessly mocked. ‘It’s typical that when you are 30 and you are single, your friends will take one of the worst pictures of you they can find. They’ll copy it, call you an ox, and distribute leaflets and posters which say that you are treating everybody to beer in the local pub. You have to go through with it.’

‘I’ve always been fascinated by the American gangster films.

I love them! I wanted to do one in my own way, on my own soil, with my own background.’

R2D2 and C3P0 Bullhead is a very intense piece of filmmaking but it does have a comic undertow. Two hapless mechanics get caught up in the hormone mafia. These French-speakers are bewildered and appalled by the behaviour of their Flemish counterparts.

‘You know, in The Hidden Fortress by Kurosawa, you have two low-lifes... or actually it’s like R2D2 and C3PO in Star Wars. They also help push the plot. Because of their stupidity, they actually create the circumstances that lead to the downfall of the main characters.’

Bullhead is Roskam’s first feature... and it took him five years to get it in front of the cameras.

Over the last decade, he has made several well-received shorts. In the meantime, he worked on the Bullhead screenplay. And there have been some false starts along the way but the characteristic he has learned is patience. ‘I am old enough now to understand that I have to be patient and to work, work, work until the screenplay is as pure as I can have it.’

Roskam’s producer is Bart Van Langendonck of Savage Film. They already worked together on the short films.

Francis Bacon The 38-year-old filmmaker grew up not far from the community he portrays in Bullhead. His father is a picture restorer. Roskam began his own career as a painter. ‘I was very much inspired by guys like Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud,’ he recalls. His initial passion as a teenager had been drawing comics. He studied graphic design and painting but soon decided that he ‘wanted to tell stories, to go from A to B,’ and not to be stuck with a single image. In his late 20s, he wasn’t quite sure which direction he wanted to head in. He wrote novels and dabbled in experimental video. ‘At 27 and 28, I was a big mess,’ he reflects ruefully. ‘It was a very dark period. I thought I would never find my feet. I lost discipline. I couldn’t finish work.’

He describes making his first short film as being like ‘coming home’. At last, he had found a medium in which he could express himself.

Yes, filmmaking is expensive and complex by comparison with painting on your own in a studio.

It is also immensely time-consuming and there is often a small eternity between having an idea and being able to make the actual movie. ‘But I always make a joke about it. I am kind of lazy.

I say that now I can disguise my laziness with patience!’

Bullhead was shot on 35mm. Not that the director considers himself a ‘fetishist of film stock’. He relished the quality and depth that cinematographer Nicolas Karakatsanis was able to achieve.

However, if a digital format offered similar quality, he says he’d change immediately. ‘Up to now, the difference between film and digital has been like that between oil painting and acrylic painting.’

Karakatsanis is an outspoken personality with a strong artistic vision of his own. That’s precisely why Roskam relished working with him. ‘Many of the people I work with are not easy guys but I liked it. They keep me sharp. Easy is boring. They’re sharp, funny and serious at the same time.

They want to work until everything is just right.’

MICHAËL R. ROSKAM (1972)

After obtaining his Master degree in sciptwriting and development at the Binger Film Lab in 1995, Michaël R. Roskam made several critically acclaimed shorts. Bullhead is his feature debut.

Today Is Friday (2007, short film) 12’ | Production Savage Film and Roskam Films The One Thing To Do (2005, short film) 25’ | Production Bart Van Langendonck/CCCP and SCIAPODE in collaboration with ARTE Carlo (2004, short film) 18’ | Production Bart Van Langendonck/CCCP and Quasi Modo Haun (2002, short film) 8’35” | Production Quasi Modo

Interview first published in

#19, 2011

‘Schoenaerts gives the kind of performance that makes stars out of actors.’

Indiewire

‘Schoenaerts presents Jacky as a raging bull whose tragedy we can identify with even as his fury terrifies us - and seals his own fate.’

Screen International – Fionnuala Halligan

‘Matthias Schoenaerts’ raging bull a standout performance in crime drama that’s light on crime, heavy on drama.’

The Hollywood Reporter – Natasha Senjanovic

‘Schoenaerts’ performance, which will surely attract awards attention, is almost entirely internalised, and all the more remarkable for it.’

Screen International – Fionnuala Halligan

INTERVIEW with Matthias Schoenaerts

Beefing Up Take 3000 tins of tuna, several hundred chickens, plenty of oats, rice and pasta. Combine them with days spent pumping iron and long nights of uninterrupted sleep.

This is the regime that enabled the slender Flemish actor Matthias Schoenaerts to transform himself into the bulky and brooding figure we see on screen in Michaël R. Roskam’s debut film, Bullhead. It’s a remarkable piece of character acting in the vein of Robert De Niro’s celebrated turn as Jake La Motta in Raging Bull. Schoenaerts spent two years preparing for Bullhead.

Text Geoffrey Macnab | Portrait Thomas Vanhaute

The Matthias Schoenaerts who walks into the interview room is big... but not as big as the hulk-like character he plays on screen. He is still on a programme to lose some of the weight and muscle he piled on for his role as the illegal growth hormone dealer in Bullhead. ‘By nature, I am a very skinny person,’ he observes.

When director Roskam first mentioned the project to him, he told Schoenaerts: ‘you’re gonna have to grow enormously!’ The actor shrugged and said, ‘oh, OK,’ as if this was an easy and straightforward request.

Schoenaerts began work on his transformation ‘right away’, more than two years before production began. ‘I started working out so that the body gets used to this kind of exercise,’ he recalls. He gained a little weight which he managed to maintain even as he took on other roles which didn’t require him to look quite so... hulk-like. Then, about a year before the start of shooting, he accelerated the process. ‘I had a personal trainer. He had a very strong program for me.’ Eat, work out, sleep - eat, work out, sleep. This was his routine. He’d drink gallons of water. ‘Your organs have to work at 300%. They’re absorbing the food. They have to process it.’

David Cronenberg Some tantalising offers came his way in the months leading up to shooting.

For example, he auditioned for a part in David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method.

The audition went well and the casting agents wanted to call him back.

However, he had pledged his commitment to Bullhead and so had to let the opportunity slip.

Friends and family were startled by the changes in Schoenaerts’ appearance in the run-up to Bullhead. ‘There were a couple of people that I hadn’t seen for a couple of months. They saw me and were like - what has happened to you!’ The actor’s mother was especially startled. She suspected that he was ‘messing with some nasty products’. That, the actor insists, was never the case.

His metamorphosis was done ‘clean’.

And, yes, after a while, the whole punishing process became strangely enjoyable.

‘I had this goal and I started enjoying it because I saw the physical transformation was happening.’

Jacky, his character in Bullhead, is emotionally repressed. There is a terrible secret in his past which the audience learns about in a flashback sequence.

‘He is not the most likeable person but he is the victim of an enormous emotional and chemical imbalance in his body,’ the actor muses of the troubled young man he plays. ‘That makes him a very vulnerable person. Of course, he has a lot of aggression but there are a lot of things that he is not able to experience in his life... he doesn’t know what it is to get love or to give love. There is a fundamental lack of love in his life which completely messes him up.’

Jerzy Grotowski The role comes with limited amounts of dialogue. ‘Body language also speaks,’ Schoenaerts states. ‘Even without words, you can express a lot of what is going on with yourself. That was a challenge but at a certain point, it all came naturally. I had so much time to grow into this part... all of a sudden you get into the zone.’

One of Schoenaerts’ inspirations was the celebrated Polish director and acting theorist Jerzy Grotowski, who espoused the theory that ‘a certain physical state involves a certain state of mind and emotional being’. In other words, if you develop the outer side of the character first, then the inner life will follow. This, Schoenaerts notes, is the antithesis of the Stanislavski approach, in which you build the character from the ‘inside out’.

Taking on the role entailed Schoenaerts to make a big leap of faith in his director. It helped that he had worked with Roskam before, on a short film.

The other key factor was the script. Schoenaerts realised that every last detail had been worked exhaustively through by the writer-director.

Bullhead was a tough film to make. The schedule was short and the budget was tight. ‘There were heavy days. It was a heavy schedule,’ the actor recalls.

‘But everybody was so well prepared and so eager. They had been waiting for so long to get to this project. You could feel this great enthusiasm. It was intense and heavy but we were really enjoying the hard work.’

Over the years in which he was preparing for the role, he slowly chiselled away toward what he calls ‘the core of the character’.

acting background Schoenaerts was heartened to discover how tenderly the farmers treated their livestock. When it came to butchering them, though, there was no hesitation.

‘To them, it was just natural. They are not seeing it as killing. One moment, they’re very sweet to an animal. The next, they cut its throat.’

Schoenaerts is now such a regular fixture in indigenous films that it comes as a slight surprise to learn that acting wasn’t his first choice of career. The son of celebrated Flemish stage and screen legend, Julien Schoenaerts, he grew up in an acting background. His father led the typical ‘gypsy’ existence of the actor, moving around from place to place with his family following in his wake.

‘I remember as a child I saw a play. The lights came on. People applauded and then they left the theatre. I was still in there. When everybody left, I just jumped on stage, grabbed the costumes and started repeating things I remembered from the play I had just seen... somehow it must have touched me deeply at that time.’

‘Even without words, you can express a lot of what is going on with yourself. That was a challenge but at a certain point, it all came naturally. I had so much time to grow into this part... all of a sudden you get into the zone.’

As a teenager, he had a part in the Oscar-nominated drama Daens (in which also his father played). He did briefly think about acting as a career but when it came to his student years, he veered off on another route. After high school, he studied directing at film school for a year. Then, he took work as a technician at a theatre in Antwerp, helping with the lights and props. Slowly, it suddenly dawned on him that acting was his universe.

Paul Verhoeven No, he hasn’t done much stage work but next year he will be working with choreographer and director Jan Fabre on a monologue. Schoenaerts is part of a new wave of Flemish talent led by directors like Tom Barman (with whom he worked on Any Way The Wind Blows), Alex Stockman (for whom he made Pulsar) and Dorothée van den Berghe (My Queen Karo). He credits Barman’s movie as ‘a breath of fresh air for Flemish filmmaking with its own energy; funky, personal and with a lot of feeling.’

International casting directors are beginning to offer him roles. He had a small part in Paul Verhoeven’s Second World War drama Black Book, an experience that he remembers with mixed feelings. He had been seriously ill with an appendix problem that almost killed him just before shooting began and wasn’t fully recovered by the time he set off for Holland for shooting. However, he realised that Verhoeven was a kindred spirit. Like Schoenaerts, the celebrated Dutch director isn’t somebody who accepts compromise. Once he takes on an assignment, he goes all the way. When producers tell him he is over schedule or budget, he makes sure that he shoots the least important scenes first. That way, Verhoeven knows, that the producer will have to make time for the other more important scenes.

Schoenaerts doesn’t need to resort to such ruses. What he does make clear, though, is that he will commit himself 100% to any project he takes - and he expects his collaborators to do the same. ‘It’s too much fun not to throw yourself in,’ he reflects on his ferociously wholehearted approach.

My Queen Karo - 2009

what’s next?

So what’s up next for Matthias Schoenaerts? First there’s The Loft in which he shares major parts with James Marsden, Wentworth Miller and Eric Stonestreet.

The film is set for a US theatrical release in spring 2012.

Next stop is Jacques Audiard’s (A Prophet) Rust and Bone in which he stars opposite Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillars (La vie en rose).

Interview first published in

#19, 2011

Left Bank - 2008

‘…a career-defining, powerfully physical lead perf

by Matthias Schoenaerts and ace lensing by local widescreen wiz Nicolas Karakatsanis.’

Variety – Boyd van Hoeij

‘DP Nicolas Karakatsanis plays with chiaroscuro lighting and stunning landscape photography when not sticking close to the protagonist’s face, isolating him all the more along with sound designer Benoît De Clerc’s frequent audio fade-outs.’

The Hollywood Reporter – Natasha Senjanovic

‘This is a film especially for an audience that hates waste; people who want every minute to count, for each scene to mean something, and add to the bigger picture.‘ Indiewire

‘At center of this startling feature debut is Schoenaerts, whose astonishingly layered performance as, and physical transformation into, the hulking Jacky culminates into one of the most searing portraits of a scarred male psyche in modern cinema.’

The Hamptons Film Festival catalogue

‘Michaël R. Roskam’s feature debut finds a gem in Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts, who leads a strong cast.’

The Hollywood Reporter – Natasha Senjanovic

‘It makes perfect sense that this is the film Belgium has chosen to submit Bullhead for consideration to the Academy Awards. This being Roskam’s feature film debut is a bit of a revelation; another first time director who has hit it out of the park.’

CriterionCast

Key Cast MATTHIAS SCHOENAERTS / JACKY VANMARSENILLE Jacky Vanmarsenille is a 30-year-old loner who helps his uncle run the family meat manufacturing business in a small town in Belgium. The family gets involved with illegal growth hormones for cattle. Jacky is an imposing figure with extremely developed muscles. He projects violence and mystery. His muscles, and his unpredictable behavior, are the result of testosterone and other drugs use but they also go back to a secret from his past.

A traumatizing experience as a child has affected his personality and made him a stranger to his own nature.

A chance meeting with his childhood friend Diederik brings back the past and sets in motion a series of events from which there is no return.

MATTHIAS SCHOENAERTS (1977) is the coming man of contemporary Flemish-Belgian cinema. After graduating from the Conservatorium Toneel Dora Van der Groen school of acting in 2002, he has starred in a number of award-winning shorts and feature movies.

Selected filmography Rust and Bone (by Jacques Audiard, 2012) The Loft (by Eric Van Looy, 2012) The Gang of Oss (by André van Duren, 2011) Bullhead (by Michaël R. Roskam, 2010) Pulsar (by Alex Stockman, 2010) La meute (by Franck Richard, 2010) My Queen Karo (by Dorothée van den Berghe, 2009) The Emperor of Taste (by Frank Van Passel & Jan Matthys, 2008, TV) Loft (by Eric Van Looy, 2008) Left Bank (by Pieter Van Hees, 2008) Nadine (by Erik De Bruyn, 2007) Black Book (by Paul Verhoeven, 2006) Love Belongs to Everyone (by Hilde Van Mieghem, 2006) Any Way the Wind Blows (by Tom Barman, 2003) A Girl (by Dorothée van den Berghe, 2002) Daens (by Stijn Coninx, 1992) And many short films.

JEROEN PERCEVAL / DIEDERIK MAES

JEANNE DANDOY / LUCIA SCHEPERS

Diederik Maes was Jacky’s best friend when they were kids. Like Jacky he is still tormented by the events from their childhood. They lost touch after Diederik’s father was arrested in an illegal hormones case and the Maes family moved away to West Flanders. Diederik has grown up to be a small-time criminal who is pressured into informing the police about the activities of his boss, Marc de Kuyper. When Diederik and Jacky meet again as part of an illegal hormones deal, Diederik is given an unexpected chance to right a wrong from the past.

Lucia Schepers owns a perfume shop in Liège. Together with her mother she takes care of her heavily handicapped brother Bruno. Fate links Lucia inextricably to Jacky although she doesn’t know it yet. If hormones define Jacky, then pheromones define Lucia...

JEROEN PERCEVAL (1978) graduated from Belgium’s renowned Studio Herman Teirlinck drama school in 2001.

He has since performed in many stage plays. In 2007 he played a leading part in With Friends Like These, Felix van Groeningen’s (The Misfortunates) second feature.

He currently works on a screenplay based on his own play, D’Ardennen, a Savage Film production with Michaël R. Roskam as executive producer.

JEANNE DANDOY (1974) grew up in a family of artists.

She wrote her first play at the age of 14.

At 17 she enrolled in the Liège conservatory where she studied under Jacques Delcuvellerie and discovered the work of Groupov. She has since performed in a large number of stage productions. Lucia is her first role in a feature.

BARBARA SARAFIAN / EVA FORRESTIER

SAM LOUWYCK / MARC DE KUYPER

Eva Forrestier, the police inspector leading the investigation into the death of her colleague Daems, is one tough cookie.

She can be cool and funny but she is clearly more interested in the case than in the people she works with. She knows no bounds in manipulating the naive Diederik into doing what she wants.

Marc De Kuyper is a ruthless cattle trader who is at the heart of the illegal growth hormones business. De Kuyper doesn’t shy away from anything, including murder. When a business proposition puts him on Sam and Jacky’s path, De Kuyper makes a fatal mistake.

BARBARA SARAFIAN (1968) started her career at the National Belgian Broadcasting Company, and made a reputation as the funniest lady in Flanders with her performances in various humorous radio and TV programs.

She made her international film debut in Peter Greenaway’s 8 1/2 Women (1999), and also played in Geoff Murphy’s Fortress II (1999) and Roman Coppola’s CQ (2001).

Her portrayal of housewife Matty in Moscow, Belgium (Christophe Van Rompaey, 2008) led to several international awards.

SAM LOUWYCK (1966) is a dancer, actor, singer, musician and choreographer. Since 1993 he has worked with contemporary dance company Les Ballets C de la B and has toured the world with them. He made a big impression with his portrayal of Windman in Tom Barman’s Any Way the Wind Blows. He went on to play the deaf guitar player in Koen Mortier’s Ex-Drummer. In 2009 he played the lead in Lost Persons Area, Caroline Strubbe’s debut movie. He also plays the lead in Koen Mortier’s second feature 22nd of May .

Key crew NICOLAS KARAKATSANIS DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

RAF KEUNEN COMPOSER

After taking directing courses at film school, Nicolas Karakatsanis discovered his talent and passion as a cinematographer. He has been shooting many short films, music videos, documentaries, feature films and commercials.

He’s actually highly in demand as director of photography.

Raf Keunen studied philosophy and music composition and orchestration.

He has written music for several short films and documentaries.His classical inspired music score for Bullhead was performed by the ‘Musiques Nouvelles’ ensemble. Already from the start of screenwriting Raf worked closely together with Michaël R. Roskam to get the right tone and subtleties in the music in order to underline the drama of the story and its visuality.

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY The Loft (2011) Bullhead (2011) Lost Persons Area (2009) Left Bank (2008) Small Gods (2007)

Selected filmography Skunk (2011, short film) Siemiany (2009, short film) Today’s Friday (2008, short film) Gas Station (2006, documentary series - 2 episodes) Vleugels (2006, TV film) The One Thing To Do (2005, short film) Carlo (2004, short film)

PRODUCER Bart Van Langendonck launched Savage Film in 2007. The company is associated to Eyeworks Belgium.

Always daring or playful, Savage Film’s projects often balance on the boundaries of genres, be it fiction, documentary or art.

Directors Savage Film works with include Wim Vandekeybus, Frank Theys, Bram Van Paesschen, Mike Figgis, Pascal Poissonnier, Patrice Toye, Vincent Coen, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and many others.

FILMOGRAPHY (as main producer unless indicated differently)

Bullhead: feature film by Michaël R. Roskam (2011) Portable Life: feature film by Fleur Boonman (2011) Empire of Dust: feature documentary by Bram Van Paesschen (2011) No Comment: 60’ documentary by Pascal Poissonnier (2011) 27: 12’ short film by Nicolas Daenens (2011) The Co(te)lette film: 57’dance film by Mike Figgis (2010) Walking Back to Happiness: TV-hour documentary by Pascal Poissonnier (2010) Crossover: 30’ dance/music/artfilm by Pierre Coulibeuf (2009) (coproducer) Soeur sourire (aka The Singing Nun): 120’ feature film by Stijn Coninx starring Cécile De France. (2009) (line-producer) Lost in Transition: TV-hour documentary by Thom Vander Beken (2008) Wild Beast: 58’ documentary by Jeroen Van der Stock (2008) Nowhere Man: feature film by Patrice Toye (2008) (associate producer)

© Bart Dewaele

BART VAN LANGENDONCK

Today Is Friday: 12’ short film by Michaël R. Roskam (2007) Here After: 60’ dance/fiction film by Wim Vandekeybus. (2007) (associate producer) Gas Station: 6 x 26’ documentary series directed by Luc Vrijdaghs (2006) Blush: 52’ fictionized dance film based on a choreography by, and directed by, Wim Vandekeybus. (2005 ) The One Thing to Do: 23’ short film by Michaël R. Roskam (2005) Maria Dolores: 70’ feature film by Wayn Traub (2004) Carlo: 19’ short film by Michaël R. Roskam (2004) Fighting for Others, Dying for Poland: 52’ historical documentary by Bart Verstockt (2002) Smokescreen Covering Brussels: 35’ fictional documentary by Bram Van Paesschen (2003) Inasmuch: 15’ short film by Wim Vandekeybus (2000) (associate producer) In Spite of Wishing and Wanting: 52’ dance-film by Wim Vandekeybus. Original music by David Byrne. (2003)

co-PRODUCERs EYEWORKS (Belgium) Eyeworks Belgium (formerly known as MMG) is part of the International Eyeworks Group and is an active player in the production of drama series and films for the (inter)national marketplace. The company is headed by Peter Bouckaert and veteran producer Erwin Provoost.

Five of the ten top grossing Flemish movies of all time have been produced by Eyeworks or one of its subsidiaries.

Additionally, Eyeworks partnered on various international co-productions.

ARTEMIS PRODUCTION (Belgium) Since its creation in 1992 by Patrick Quinet, Artémis Productions has produced many short films and documentaries, 15 Belgian feature films and has additionally co-produced 41 foreign feature films and 8 TV films.

WATERLAND FILM (The Netherlands) Waterland Film was created in 1994 by Jan van der Zanden en Wilant Boekelman. They always aim at telling captivating stories that deal with relevant themes of our society while exploring cinematographic bounderies.

CREDITS Original title: Rundskop Director: Michaël R. Roskam Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeroen Perceval, Barbara Sarafian, Jeanne Dandoy, Tibo Vandenborre, Sam Louwyck Original screenplay: Michaël R. Roskam Photography: Nicolas Karakatsanis Editing: Alain Dessauvage Sound: Benoit De Clerck Music: Raf Keunen FORMAT Original version: Dutch, French Running time: 126’ Format: 35mm, 2.35 (scope), Dolby Digital, Colour Year of production: 2011 PRODUCTION Production company: Savage Film Flemish producer: Bart Van Langendonck Co-producer: Peter Bouckaert (Eyeworks), Patrick Quinet (Artémis Productions), Jan Van der Zanden (Waterland Film) Supported by: Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), Bruxellimage, CCA, NFF, MEDIA

FESTIVALS AND AWARDS SELECTIONS Berlinale Panorama (February 2011) Festival du Film Policier de Beaune, France (March 2011) International Film Festival Breda, The Netherlands (March 2011) International Film Festival Made in Europe, The Netherlands (April 2011) Transilvania International Film Festival, Romania (June 2011) Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 2011) Jerusalem International Film Festival (July 2011) Puchon PIFAN International Film Festival (July 2011) Fantasia International Film Festival Montréal (July 2011) Melbourne International Film Festival (July 2011) Motovun International Film Festival, Croatia (July 2011) Two Riversides International Film Festival, Poland (July 2011) L’Etrange Festival, Paris (September 2011) International Film Festival Ostend, Belgium (September 2011) Athens International Film Festival (September 2011) Helsinki Love & Anarchy (September 2011) Austin Fantastic (September 2011) Vancouver International Film Festival (September 2011) Chicago Film Festival (October 2011) Hawai International Film Festival (October 2011) The Hamptons International Film Festival (October 2011) International Film Festival Sitges (October 2011) Festival des jeunes réalisateurs, St. Jean de la Luz, France (October 2011) Katowice Regiofun, Poland (October 2011) Moscow ‘2 in 1’ International Film Festival (October 2011) Kiev Molodist International Film Festival (October 2011) Mostra Sao Paulo (October 2011) Doha Tribeca Festival (October 2011) AFI Fest L.A. (November 2011) Taipei Golden Horse International Film Festival (November 2011) Minsk International Film Festival (November 2011) Stockholm International Film Festival (November 2011)

Osaka European Film Festival (November 2011) Goa International Film Festival (November 2011) European Film Awards Berlin (December 2011) Palm Springs International Film Festival (January 2012) AWARDS Jury Prize and Critics Prize - Festival du Film Policier de Beaune (March 2011 I ex-acquo with 2011 Oscar-nominee Animal Kingdom) ‘New Flesh Award’ for Best First Feature - Fantasia International Film Festival Montréal (July 2011) ‘Propeller Award’ for Best Film - Motovun International Film Festival, Croatia (July 2011) ‘New Genre’ award for Best Film - L’Etrange Festival, Paris (Sept 2011) Six ‘Flanders Film Awards’: Best film, Best Director, Best Debut, Best Actor, Best Supporting Role, Best Photography International Film Festival Ostend, Belgium (September 2011) Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (M.Schoenaerts) - AMD & Dell ‘next wave’ spotlight competition Fantastic Fest, Austin (September 2011) ‘Heroes Award’ for Matthias Schoenaerts’ standout performance Moscow ‘2 in 1’ International Film Festival (October 2011)

CONTACT INFO

SALES

PROMOTION

Savage Film Bart Van Langendonck De Ribaucourtstraat 139 0/D BE 1080 Brussels Belgium/EU Cell +32 476 55 11 53 bart@savagefilm.be www.savagefilm.be

Celluloid Dreams 2 rue Turgot FR 75009 Paris France/EU T +33 1 49 70 03 70 F +33 1 49 70 03 71 info@celluloid-dreams.com www.celluloid-dreams.com

Flanders Image Christian De Schutter Bischoffsheimlaan 38 BE 1000 Brussels Belgium/EU T +32 2 226 06 30 F +32 2 219 19 36 flandersimage@vaf.be www.flandersimage.com

US DISTRIBUTOR

US Agent Michaël R. Roskam

Drafthouse Films (in partnership with Image Entertainment) Evan Husney Drafthouse Films Cell +1 347 461 6647 evan.husney@drafthouse.com www.drafthousefilms.com

United Talent Agency Ramses Ishak and Michael Sheresky Literary and Talent Representation 9560 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills CA 90212, USA T +1 310 273 6700 F +1 310 247 1111

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