François Beukelaers

The Making of Ex Drummer (2007), the debut feature by Koen Mortier. Based on the novel by Herman Brusselmans, the film follows three misfits who form a band and convince renowned author Dries to join them as their drummer. But once in, Dries begins to manipulate the group from within.

It's 1997. Frank Verstraeten, a computer genius with a nose for business, a fascination for nightlife and an unhealthy urge to prove himself, only wants one thing: his own disco that not only outperforms the competition but simply humiliates it. The futuristic mega discotheque Zillion is a fact and Frank turns from computer dealer to the pivotal figure of the Antwerp nightlife. He parades with the most beautiful women in Belgium and forges an alliance with Dennis Black Magic, the porn king who provides the spicy extras. Unfortunately, beautiful songs don't last long either.

Cécile’s life is turned upside down after the Alzheimer diagnosis of her husband. In an attempt to keep him close, she loses herself.

When giants die let three generations look back on the street happenings around parties and manifestations. The grandfather appears as a ghost and represents processions organized by order of cities and municipalities. It is his son who places the parades in a series of processions, historical processions, parades, traditional parties and carnival parties. Criticism and attraction play their game. Finally, the grandson searches for contemporary forms and points to demonstrations, manifestations. Reclaiming the street, forming a community, expressing thoughts on the street, together outside, ... 'The street, the mother of democracy', is how it sounds through a robot-controlled horn. To give up the street is to lose freedom.

Antwerp, Belgium. The lives of four small-time drug dealers spin out of control when they steal a shipment of cocaine, triggering a full out war between an Amsterdam drug lord and a ruthless Colombian cartel.

Anne leaves Estonia to come to Paris as a caretaker for Frida, an elderly Estonian lady who emigrated to France long ago. Anne soon realizes that she is not wanted. All Frida wants from life is the attention of Stéphane, her younger former lover. Stéphane, however, is desperate for Anne to stay and look after Frida, even against the old lady's will. In this conflict of strangers, Anne will find her own way…

Sam wakes up, gets ready and goes to do his daily job. And then the unexpected happens. A bomb explodes in the center of the shopping mall where he works. He drags himself towards the entrance to save the victims. One by one he pulls them out, until something terrible takes place. In complete hysteria he runs off till he falls down from exhaustion. A woman's voice makes him raise his head. She's one of the victims he saved. She wants to know why the suicide bomber did it. This encounter projects him back in history and even in a surreal world. Thereafter he runs into everyone he saved and feels that their defeat shows many parallels with his own. Even his confrontation with the wrongdoer isn't that straightforward as he thought it would be and confronts him with the fact that guilt and innocence can be pretty much alike.

An elderly lady called Ida is wasting away in a retirement home until one day she meets a new resident named Jef. They fall in love and decide to liven up place.

Two people meet again after more than 50 years. They were lovers once, but their lives took different turns: she married his best friend. Fifty years later, they meet again and passion flares up. But is it possible to pick up the thread of a life that unraveled fifty years ago? The story of a wonderful last love affair, which is relived with the intensity of a first.

A Brussels homicide cop (Jérémie Renier) begins to lose control of his life as he tries to solve a bizarre murder.

Jurgen Vanderspek (a.k.a. James Vanderbacon) is a senior in high school. He is a loudmouthed macho who loves to tell juicy anecdotes about his sexual escapades, but actually, he is still a virgin. When, one drunken evening, Cissy ends up in his bed, Jurgen gets much more than he bargained for.

One evening, 38-year-old Frank returns to his quiet residential house where his family has organised a surprise birthday party. Everybody is present: his wife, two children, brother, sister-in-law, his father… even the babysitter. They toast, his favourite meal is served and a birthday cake provided. But, amid the celebration, there are hints that things aren't really what they seem to be…

Between his tax problems and his legal battle with his wife for the custody of his daughter, these are hard times for the action movie star who finds that even Steven Seagal has pinched a role from him! This fictionalized version of Jean-Claude Van Damme returns to the country of his birth to seek the peace and tranquility he can no longer enjoy in the United States, but inadvertently gets involved in a bank robbery with hostages.

Three musicians form a band. But they're not just any musicians: each has a disability that makes them particularly unsuitable for their instrument. The guitarist is deaf, the singer is tone deaf, and the bassist has a stiff arm. They lack a drummer, and to respect the group's uniqueness, they turn to a famous writer who has never played the drums. He accepts, but begins a manipulation that will wreak further havoc on the already largely dysfunctional band.

Jean is a family man and factory worker who dreams of becoming a songwriter. Pinning his hopes on his teenage daughter, Marva, he takes her to singing contests in which the awkward and overweight girl struggles to belt out a tune. When Jean is suddenly fired because of cut backs, he is ashamed and even more desperate to have his daughter succeed. In a chance meeting Jean kidnaps the most famous pop star in the country and holds her hostage demanding to be heard by the music industry. Catching the attention of the media and the eyes of the nation, Jean and Marva realize that the show must go on until everyone is famous.

Pauline is a 'little girl of 66 years old'. She is mentally retarded and been cared after by her sister Martha. When Martha dies, her two younger sisters, Paulette and Cecile have to make a decision on the best place for Pauline to be looked after. Neither of them is ready to take care of her. Paulette has a shop to look after and Cecile has her Albert. But according to Martha's last will, her fortune will only be divided in three equal parts if one of the sisters looks after Pauline. If they decide to take her to an institution, Pauline will be the only heir.

A maverick military diver gets demoted to a dangerous search-and-rescue squadron and must gain the trust of his new team.

A fantasy romance set in 19th century France. The film revolves around Sobran, a young peasant winemaker, and the three important figures in his life - his beautiful wife Celeste, baroness Aurora de Valday and an angel named Xas.

Upon the death of her husband, Claire (70) decides to reconnect with her estranged son, down and out R&B musician Sid. She asks him to help her restart the old girl group she used to sing in with two of her friends from the old days. The rebel son is hesitant at first but eventually agrees under one condition: the band has to play HIS music.

A biography of the Belgian nun Jeannine Deckers, who became a popular singer in the early 1960s and struggled with the contradiction between the church and her true self.

Martin is a successful man with a well-paid job at a pharmaceutical company. He lives with his family in an upscale neighborhood of a Belgian city, and is already making plans for another home in Tuscany, Italy. However, soon after he becomes the victim of an embezzlement scandal, everything begins to take a turn for the worse. Martin will soon be involved in a series of events and decisions that will put an end to the stability he has achieved in his life, and cause him and his family to fall into a downward spiral together.

A 14th-century peasant becomes transfixed by a statue of the Virgin Mary, and petitions to be walled into a cell attached to the church as a religious hermit.

Johan Ten Berghe joins the Dutch army when the Dutch East Indies unilaterally declare independence as Indonesia. He initiates his naive driver Twan in life in the East, having grown up there as son of colonial official Hendrik, now missing. Their adventures intertwine with Johan's childhood memories, especially concerning his native best friend, Oeroeg, who joined the rebellion, as well as their nanny and later de facto stepmother. Conflicting loyalties become tangible in extreme situations

Marcel and Jim, two friends, appear to be plagued by a midlife crisis which is ruining both their artistic and emotional lives.

A young thug is up to no good.

Based on old records, a doctor in the year 2222 conducts an examination of a woman's body.

The film is about a Flemish farmer, Kamiel Spiessens, who does everything he can to defend his land against a Dutch businessman. That man wants to build an amusement park on the land.

When Laura was six, her parents got divorced and her father disappeared from her life. The happiness she experienced on her final journey with her father, when he danced with her at a flea market in Brussels, holds a special place in Laura's memory. When Laura finds the shadow puppets her father once bought for her in the attic, these open up a portal to the past for her.

The film narrates the day-to-day existence of a filmmaker wandering through his city (Brussels) and who has a notion to follow in the footsteps of dramatist Antonin Artaud and visit the Tarahumara people of Mexico. This is a film about intimacy and friendship. Written in the first person, it places Boris and Brussels in the centre of the universe, here represented by the crazy, vertiginous, endless spiral of the biblical Tower. It is Boris's diary and self-portrait. He plays himself on screen (as do the cast of a hundred who also allowed themselves to be “babelised“).

Short film.

Martin, a drifter, is on his way to Istanbul when he meets Willy, a student working in Belgium. Fascinated by Martin, Willy decides to go with him to Istanbul, but soon discovers pieces of his dark past.

Rocklin Colorado, 1925. A hard cold winter. Young Arturo Bandini loves his father Svevo, his mother Maria and his brothers. Even though his bricklayer father wastes the little money he has in the Imperial Poolhall and his time with the rich American widow, Hildegarde. Even though his beautiful and pious mother lets his father get away with that, even if his little brother wets the bed. Arturo loves them all. He also loves to play baseball, even though he has to wait until spring. And he also loves the movies ... and Rosa. But she doesn't love him ...

Following over two dozen different individuals in the almost wordless atmosphere of a dark night in a Brussels town, acceptance and rejection in the realm of romance is examined.

Three 'Bukowskian' torrid nights in the life of a man, Harry, in search of love. The first is as a youth, the second on the day of his high school graduation, and the third as a lonely, middle-aged man.

The story centers on Jean (François Beukelaers)—an ex-colonial and former mercenary—and his girlfriend Nadia, who together run the tavern. The bar serves as a gloomy crossroads where three different generations of patrons intersect. As these lonely individuals drink and collide, they confront each other's unfulfilled dreams, romantic illusions, hidden desires, and sudden outbursts of aggression. Trapped between their past actions and what could have been, the characters struggle with profound miscommunication. The film blends dark melancholy with sharp injections of humor, tracking a complex web of human relationships where everyone is simultaneously the hunter and the prey.

Set in a scorching Brussels, Babel Opera blends documentary and fiction during the intense rehearsals of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. As an international cast struggles to bring the opera to life, four fictional characters appear around the set. Their real-life conflicts, infidelities, and passions begin to mirror the seductions of the opera itself, completely blurring the lines between art and reality as the grand premiere approaches.

Max, an aimless middle-aged man, travels to Brussels. As he wanders the city streets, he meets three unlikely companions, with tensions rising among the group each passing hour.

Mr. Vitàl is the sole heir and initially very energetic nephew of an elderly rentier, Uncle Ken, who succumbs to years of excessive enjoyment of the finer things in life, especially too much gin and too much of his young maid Flavie. As the village doctor succinctly sums it up: 'L'Alcool et Flavie' broke Uncle Ken. The title refers to the esophageal ulcer, a result of alcohol abuse, which feels like a ball burning the throat. Although Mr. Vitàl is well aware of the causes of his uncle's demise, he eventually goes down the same path.

Nick Vandom met his local friend Mai as a soldier during the Vietnam War. When the US troops flee the withdrawal, Nick manages to make his way to the airport with Mai, where the two become their own. Nick returns to the US and leaves May to an uncertain fate. In the years ahead, Nick had a bad conscience. When he responded to a letter from Mai with a cry for help six years later, he immediately set off for Thailand. When Nick found out there that Mai was hiding in the girl's descriptive, forcible ...

Olga is married to Laurent, who is devoted to his career and often leaves Olga at home alone when he travels away for work. Whilst she is rich and wants for nothing, she is terribly bored with life. When Laurent is working away she meets up with his colleague Pierre and through him meets Claude, who is unemployed and fed up of his situation. Can Olga and Claude help each other to get their lives back on track?

Mathieu Grégoire is an esteemed author who lives in Spa with his wife and daughter and leads a carefully structured life. One day, while out in the desolate landscape of the High Fens he meets a mysterious woman whom he calls 'Belle'. An obsessive passion is kindled in Mathieu and in a short space of time he loses all control over his existence.

A filmed essay about the painter Bouts.

Thomas, in his forties, holds an important post in a slaughterhouse. He is engaged to Marie-Rose, the daughter of the director, whom he hopes to follow later. In a routine examination in the hospital, however, he finds out that he has cancer and his days are counted. The upheaval that he suffers as a result, however, does not take long, his decision is certain: he will use the short time to clean up some bad guys. What else can he do now?

A married schoolteacher in Flanders develops an obsessive love for one of his students. After moving away to escape his feelings, a disturbing encounter with death and an unexpected reunion begin to unravel his grip on reality.

The Belgian linguistics professor Matthias is going through a difficult period in relations with his girlfriend Anne. She is French, he is Belgian, and, oddly enough for an enlightened Europe and a doubly enlightened university environment, this small difference is a shadow on the couple’s personal life. One day, during a train ride, Anne disappears and Mathias goes looking for her in an unknown city.

In the freezing winter of 1944, the devastating Battle of the Bulge rages across Belgium. Amid the chaos, an American soldier separated from his unit crosses paths with Richard, a cynical young Belgian boy, and Willy, a wounded German soldier they take as a prisoner.Stranded in a desolate, snowy landscape where survival overrides military allegiance, the three mismatched individuals form a fragile, surreal bond. As they trudge through the war-torn countryside, their basic survival instincts push political ideologies aside.

Lily is a lost girl who lived a miserable childhood. Now she works for Martial, a small-time crook. One day, she meets Armand, a shy high school student, the son of a renowned surgeon. And she discovers true love. But Martial is nothing of a tender heart, on the contrary. He manipulates Lily into forcing Armand to mimic the signature of his father, which will allow his gang to obtain drugs with a view to selling them...