Synopsis
André Demester secretly and painfully loves Barbe, his childhood friend, accepting from her the little that she gives him. He leaves home to be a soldier in a war in a far off land. Barbarity, camaraderie and fear turn him into a warrior. As the seasons go by, Barbe, alone and wasting away, waits for the soldiers to return. Will Demester’s boundless love for Barbe save him?
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Cast
- Adélaïde LerouxBarbe
- Samuel BoidinAndré Demester
- Henri CretelBlondel
- Jean-Marie BruveartBriche
- David PoulainLeclercq
- Patrice VenantMordac
- David LegayLieutenant
- Inge DecaestekerFrance
- David DewaeleDenis
Recommendations
- 88
New York Post
Unspeakable brutality ensues, including a rape, a castration and cold-blooded murder. Dumont never mentions Iraq, but the parallels are clear. - 88
TV Guide Magazine
With very little dialogue and lingering shots of the landscape -- always a very important visual trope in Dumont's deep-psyche explorations -- the film is nevertheless tighter and, clocking in at under 90 minutes, relatively brief. - 75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
With razor-sharp precision, Dumont interweaves scenes of battle with the unravelling of a young woman back home, involved with two of the soldiers. But this is not bleakness just for the sake of it. When it arrives, the ray of hope rings perfectly true for being so devoid of artifice. - 70
Variety
A somber, beautifully acted reflection on the barbarity of war and the bestiality of man. - 70
The New York Times
Whether you like or loathe Mr. Dumont’s movies, his unsettling vision of humanity stripped of cultural finery feels profoundly truthful. - 67
The A.V. Club
Once again, Dumont cycles through the pet themes of films like "L'Humanité" and "Twentynine Palms," but their repetition is beginning to seem like shtick. - 60
Film Threat
Bruno Dumont’s Flanders is something you don't see everyday: a decidedly non-sentimental love story. - 50
Premiere
As a fan, it's upsetting to admit that Dumont's ideas and insights have narrowed with this picture, his relaxed pacing now lethargic, his physically and mentally thick characters too familiar, and his ice-water shocks a bit predictable. It would seem self-parodic if it weren't so damn tragic.
