Forgive Me

I saw this film about 5 years ago at the annual film festival in Gent. I was very confused and a bit shocked when I left the cinema. At the beginning the dutch director talks directly to the public and warns you about what you're going to see: 'like an extreme episode of Jerry Springer (or Jambers, for those who speak dutch)', he says, only intended to humiliate people, embarrass them, so this is pure exploitation. The people Frisch aims his camera at are mostly lowlifes who absolutely don't care they 're being laughed at. At the end of the movie there's a scene on the beach with the breathtakingly beautiful Ellen ten Damme. I saw it again recently on DVD. It's released as part of the Reel23 series. www.filmfreaks.nl/reel23/

A transgressive, shocking but daring film that leaves you unsettled and stays with you for a while...and that's what cinema is about. It was fascinating to have the camera pointed at these 'outsiders' that people fail to see or don't want to see. The director raises questions about our morality, we are shocked but yet we can't look away, so how far can we go?