Didier and Elise may look like a good fit when they fall in love at first sight and start a life together on his rundown farm, but appearances can be deceiving. This lanky bearded bluegrass banjo playing man is a romantic atheist whereas Elise, a beautiful blond hippy tattoo artist who maps her life out by the ink on her body, is a religious realist. They both share a passion for each other and also for making music together and when Elise becomes suddenly pregnant, they extend this to Maybelle their child too. It’s a big happy family until one day Maybelle, now aged 7, is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Elise finds solace in her spirituality and in religious symbolism, whereas an desolate Didier focuses his anger at raging at the fanatics of the religious right who are successful in banning cell stem research that could help others like his child.
Keeping their lives together becomes more difficult as they get mired in their grief, and this couple that were inseparable can now barely speak to each other and are bound to go their desperate ways.
In this story co-written from a play by lead actor Johan Heldenberg (Didier) what strikes one most is the sheer intensity of every single part of the story. Right from the very raw love-making of the pair, to the heart wrenching twist of the child’s sudden illness. When Didier suddenly loses his cool completely and rants and rages at the audience in the middle of his band’s performance he is really asking what the point of life actually is if tragedies like the loss of his child can occur.
The irony is that this Flemish man has always been so impressed with everything American as he believes life there is perfection, yet he can see from his TV (Pres. Bush at a news conference) that the culprits who are stopping the medical research are in his precious USA. And the Appalachian music he is devoted to sing is deeply infused with the God that he hates so much.
It’s an immensely powerful and painfully devastating movie that will move you to tears more than once. Watching the pair struggle to come to terms with having to witness the sheer cruelty of Maybelle’s suffering, (with a staggeringly realistic performance from an exceptionally talented five year old Nell Cattrysse) and then trying to find some rationality in the situation just exasperates their anger even more.
And lest I should forget, there is the glorious haunting Bluegrass music that peppers the whole story ….. and all sung and played by the actors themselves.
This is Belgium’s official nomination for Best Foreign Language Oscar and has deservedly made the final shortlist and is a very serious contender for actually winning. It has already been picking up awards around the world including a Best Actress one at Tribeca Festival for Veerle Baetens’s riveting performance as Elise.
Unmissable.
★★★★★★★★★★
