If you want a little foreign flavor added to your usual movie-going experience, consider seeing "Moscow Belgium|" in the near future. It is one of the best small films to come along so far this year.
The movie begins simply enough – a harried mother (Barbara Sarafian as Matty) backs into a truck in the supermarket parking lot. The owner of the truck (Jurgen Delnaet as Johnny) steps down. Fingerpointing and verbal abuse of course follows; only the eventual arrival of the police keeps the situation from becoming any uglier than it is.
Later that day we see Matty bathing; her daughter interrupts her to say there is a phone call from Johnny. Matty blows this off, and despite the continued advances of Johnny Matty remains stoically immune to his attentions.
We find that Matty's art-professor husband has moved out to carry on an affair with one of his students. Matty would like a normal life; her kids, her husband and her lack of funds frustrates her. And now there is this persistent guy whom she tells she doesn't need any more things in her life.
But we can see that Johnny will not be shaken off as easily as that. So the balance of the movie essentially prances about the central theme; should she accept Johnny in her life or have her husband come back into her life?
Barbara Sarafian is a wonderful actress, playing straight-faced to all – her colleague at work, her suitors and her children. She convincingly conveys Matty's worn-down attitude; and according to her (interview at buzzine.com/2009/01/christophe-van-rompaey-interview) "you suspect that there is a bomb inside of her".
And so I leave it to you to see how Matty handles all her concerns and decides which is the best course for what probably be the rest of her life. I don't think you will for a second be disappointed with the outcome.
Three stars.
