Meeuwen sterven in de haven

Meeuwen sterven in de haven (1955) was one of the first - if not the first - cosmopolitan motion pictures in Flemish film history. Set in the post-World War II harbour city of Antwerp, this existentialist drama portrays the problematic quest of a tormented tramp (Julien Schoenaerts) searching for salvation. As he pieces together the jigsaw of his calamitous past - due to traumatic war experiences - there are only three people to morally support him in facing the inconvenient present: a six-year-old orphan, a mysterious skipper's wife (Tine Balder) and a concerned prostitute (Dora van der Groen).

Notwithstanding the admirable efforts of the directing triumvirate (Rik Kuypers, Ivo Michiels and Roland Verhavert) to depict their personages in a semi-poetical realism, playing with images, exposure, montage and music, the characters at times find themselves lost in a maze of social sublimation, clairvoyant dialogue, superficial avant-garde and naïve, cultivated conformism. But considered in its historical context, this picture is a step that had to be taken in paving the way for more level-headed Belgian cinematography.