News

A scene from the Belgian TV series “Chantal” Season 2. Courtesy of MHz Choice

Season 2 of the charming Belgian crime dramedy “Chantal” picks up where the first season left off. The way lead detective Chantal (Maaike Cafmeyer) handled that concluding hostage situation landed her in hot water with the brass and – even worse – the rich asshole who runs the town as his own fiefdom, Schiettekatte (Wim Opbrouck), who is the driving force behind her suspension. That puts “The Sheriff” reluctantly in charge of the department, to absolutely no one else’s satisfaction – especially his. Here’s the review of Season One to bring you up to speed or refresh your memory. The season also starts with a brief recap of prior events: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2025/02/chantel-tv-series-review.

This round gives us six episodes, opening and closing with two-parters and a pair of stand-alones in between. Chantal’s look and life remain quite disheveled,...

At first glance, Young Hearts seems to resemble Lukas Dhont’s Close — in its rural Belgian town setting and its focus on two early teenage boys navigating the tricky boundaries between friendship and romance. But closer acquaintance reveals Flemish filmmaker Anthony Schatteman’s first feature to be something more in line with Heartstopper or Love, Simon, entirely without the tragic dimensions of Dhont’s Oscar-nominated drama. Impressive newcomer Lou Goossens plays a 14-year-old boy thrown into emotional confusion by his attraction to a new neighbor in a film whose queer positivity should be a balm to LGBTQ kids wrestling with their sexuality as well as to parents struggling with acceptance.

That doesn’t mean the usual conflicts of brooding isolation, initial rejection and fear of stigmatization are absent. But one of the chief selling points of Young Hearts is its sincere depiction of coming out in a supportive environment, unfolding...

There’s a scene in Nanouk Leopold’s Cobain where the titular fifteen year-old (Bas Keizer) tells his estranged, junkie mother Mia (Naomi Velissariou) that he wants to help. Her response is to ask whether she cares about what he does, the answer tragically understood before his mouth utters the word “No.” To watch her shrug her shoulders and say, “Why should you?” epitomizes love’s power and its strength in circumstances where you couldn’t be blamed for believing it didn’t exist at all. Mia has never been a mother to him and he calls her by her first name to prove it. (And don’t expect a manipulative “Mom” to be uttered either as Stienette Bosklopper’s script is uninterested in saccharine clichés). But he still can’t let her go.

Cobain is on the cusp of starting over having just been placed with a foster family...

Beta Cinema handles world sales.

Screen can reveal the first trailer (see above) for Berlin Film Festival Generation 14plus drama Cobain by Nanouk Leopold (Brownian Movement).

Beta Cinema handles world sales on the Dutch-German co-production which will be distirbuted by Cinemien in Benelux and W-Film in Germany.

Leopold’s sixth film follows teenager Cobain who tries to get his pregnant mother Mia to quit her self-destructive lifestyle. When she refuses to clean up her act, Cobain must take over.

Starring are Naomi Velissariou (Out Of Love), Wim Opbrouck (Cafe Derby), Dana Marineci (Toni Erdmann) and newcomer Bas Keizer in the lead role.

Written and produced by Stienette Bosklopper (Brownian Movement), Cobain is also produced by Fish Tank associate producer Lisette Kelder.

Beta Cinema handles world sales.

Screen can reveal the first trailer (see above) for Berlin Film Festival Generation 14plus drama Cobain by Nanouk Leopold (Brownian Movement).

Beta Cinema handles world sales on the Dutch-German co-production which will be distirbuted by Cinemien in Benelux and W-Film in Germany.

Leopold’s sixth film follows teenager Cobain who tries to get his pregnant mother Mia to quit her self-destructive lifestyle. When she refuses to clean up her act, Cobain must take over.

Starring are Naomi Velissariou (Out Of Love), Wim Opbrouck (Cafe Derby), Dana Marineci (Toni Erdmann) and newcomer Bas Keizer in the lead role.

Written and produced by Stienette Bosklopper (Brownian Movement), Cobain is also produced by Fish Tank associate producer Lisette Kelder.

I Need a Lover with a Farmhand: Leopold’s Understated Portrait of Desire Deferred

Loneliness and resentment are the dueling, omnipresent emotions on screen in virtually every frame in Nanouk Leopold’s It’s All So Quiet. Premiering back at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, Leopold adapts from the novel The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker (who makes a small appearance in the film), and it seems to be aligned with a subject matter the Dutch filmmaker prizes—notions of secret desires. Those first being introduced to either Leopold’s work or that of the rather moving performance of its lead actor, Jeroen Williams, will be saddened to learn that he died suddenly at the end of 2012 at the age of 50, with this film’s dedication honoring his memory. It’s a reality that adds another layer to the film’s already sobering representation of lives caught in stilted familial histories.

With...

The Berlin International Film Festival -- which kicks off February 7th -- has added a slew of new titles to its Panorama and Berlinale Special programs, including new work form Ken Loach, James Franco, Michael Winterbottom, Shane Carruth, Giuseppe Tornatore and Jane Campion. Many of them having their international premieres after debuting at Sundance (a notable exception being Ken Loach's doc about post-war Britain and tracks the birth of a new socialism, a world premiere), the newly announced films helped complete the Panorama's narrative film program, which previously was announced to include new work from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Noah Baumbach and Felix van Groeningen. Here is the list of newly announced titles. The Berlinale runs February 7-17, 2012. Panorama fictional films   Boven is het stil (It's all so Quiet) - Netherlands/Germany By Nanouk Leopold With Jeroen Willems, Henri Garcin, Wim Opbrouck, Martijn Lakemeier World...