“An unorthodox grand film with a soul all its own.”
As avid movie viewers we are all too familiar with films that reveal their ending at the very start of the story. From Sunset Boulevard to Memento, this cinematic trick has often proven successful, all the way from the days of classic movies to modern classics. But in the Berlinale Competition title Dust, the second feature film from Belgian casting director turned helmer Anke Blondé, we are, yes, told the possible outcome at the very start of the film, but we don’t see the final scene played out until the end — a welcomed change for this kind of story. And when that ending does come, in Blondé’s capable hands I found myself gasping with surprise, even if it might have been completely predictable.
Armed with a deliciously well-written script by Angelo Tijssens (who co-wrote both of Lukas Dhont’s award-winning films Girl and Close, as well as his upcoming feature Coward), and played phenomenally by Flemish actor Jan Hammenecker and the French-Belgian thespian Arieh Worthalter, the film is at once restrained and outlandish, beautiful to behold but also packing a powerful emotional punch. The latter is done by quietly unsettling us at every turn, even when we think we know what is coming next.
On a spring weekend in 1999 tech entrepreneurs Luc (Hammenecker) and Geert (Worthalter) are discovered to have falsified their company’s numbers (and success) by creating a network of shell companies. When an emergency board meeting is called, they are told the inevitable outcome of their actions — jail. Their arrest is to happen on the coming Monday, when the markets open and the discrepancies created by their maneuvers are discovered. Each man reacts to the news in his own way. Luc, the pudgy tech genius, runs home to his wife, and together they find ways to bury the evidence (and the money) in an effort to save whatever is left. Geert, the sleek gay salesman and face of the company, also goes back to his luxurious home, complete with indoor pool, but his journey is more elegant and less messy than Luc’s. Just when we’ve become complacent with their characters, Blondé throws us a couple of curve balls and the story changes again, leaving the audience stuck in the thick clay mud of the Flemish countryside where most of the film is shot.
It is unusual in modern blockbusters to find protagonists like Luc and Geert. But this is far from your typical Hollywood blockbuster, both in origin and story. Dust is an unorthodox grand film with a soul all its own, and just when things appear to have gotten too serious, the filmmaker (and the film’s writer) add a tongue-in-cheek moment when Geert unsuccessfully attempts to enter the company’s offices using his voice-activated door command. It seems “Geert” is not a name Alexa would recognize in our current weird tech world. Expectant moms, take note when naming your babies.
Benefiting from magnificent cinematography by Dutch DoP Frank van den Eeden, and from sound designer Christopher Wilson’s hauntingly closed-in auditory texture, Dust is one of those films that points out the true challenges of being human in a world of capitalism. All while showing us that, unlike what lesser films and politicians want us to believe, in life the line between being a baddie and acting like an angel is much thinner than we think, and sometimes a flawed person can also be the hero of our dreams. Dirty, muddy shoes and balding patch and all.
(c) Image copyright – A Private View – Toon Aerts