LIFE IS (NOT) A GAME TO PLAY

De Rotterdamse haven, een voetbalstadion, een aanslag in de Brusselse metro, een vluchteling, gevangenishonden en een butler academie. Zes films die ons doen reflecteren op het leven.

YOU CAN’T AUTOMATE ME

Katarina Jazbec • Nederland • 20’

Before container-ships leave port, lashers secure the containers using heavy metal bars. They are the last port workers to do such dangerous jobs surrounded by self-driven vehicles and remotely operated cranes. Each body tells its own story: from grieving for a colleague who died on the job to just keep going. Stowaway animals appear as visions of a more natural world.​

DAS SPIEL

Roman Hodel • Zwitserland • 17’

A whistle. The stands of the stadium get loud. The players protest angrily. The presenters follow the action on the field. In the middle of it, the referee. The whole stadium watches him. Now he has to decide and direct the energy of an entire stadium.

MAALBEEK

Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis • België/Frankrijk • 15’

Survivor but amnesiac of the attack at Maalbeek metro station on 22 March 2016 in Brussels, Sabine is looking for the missing image of an over-mediatised event of which she has no memory.

FOUNT

Evrim İnci • Turkije • 4’

Walid and his family, who had been having a difficult life in Somalia and had to migrate to Turkey, are sent to Burdur. Walid, facing the drought in Burdur which he ran away from Somalia, is struggling his life, as well.

PRILAGODENI

Dejan Petrović • Servië • 20’

Through looking at a loveable dog’s refusal to submit to the will of her trainer, Adjusting reflects on the relativity of any authority that renders us obedient through the exercise of reward and punishment.

THE BALLET OF SERVICE

Marlies Smeenge • Nederland • 15’

At a butler academy (yes, there is such a thing) everything must be in order. Perfection is the gold standard and the norm, in this film which gives us an incredible insight into a world which only deals with all things in servitude – and looks at the people hiding behind the polished veneer of the perfect butler.

Q&A MET MARLIES SMEENGE

Regisseur van THE BALLET OF SERVICE

Marlies Smeenge (Arnhem, 1993) started her studies at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, as a word art student. There she discovered her fascination for seemingly normal human beings behind which lies an interesting or inspiring story. After three years, she continued her studies at the Netherlands Film Academy, where she further refined her eye for unique and striking details in daily life. Her films are characterized by their high empathic content combined with a subtle comic and light tone. Her third-year documentary Anita’s Roedel (2018) can be seen at Makers van Morgen, and is selected and nominated at festivals in the Netherlands and abroad (Go Short, Docfest Maastricht, Mecal Pro Barcelona). She graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy in 2019 with the slightly comical, observational documentary Heaven Awaits (2019), about the last three elderly nuns still alive and their dog in a Flemish monastery. Heaven Awaits won, among other things, the VERS Award for Best Film of 2019. The Ballet of Service (2020) is her latest documentary.