Ex Drummer

Colour, 35 mm
Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, France, 2007, 104 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Every backwater in Flanders has its provincial rock band which plays wherever it can, dreaming vainly of stardom. Three disabled musicians who, like their idols, have turned to drugs, are looking for a drummer for their band, The Feminists. Famous writer Dries would fit the bill perfectly, but there’s one snag – he doesn’t know how to play the drums. Even so, this arrogant manipulator sets off to see the group, thus triggering private and family squabbles which place the fragile future of the band in jeopardy. Things start getting violent and Dries even manages to convince the band members to drink each other’s blood. Ex Drummer is hardly a conventional film adaptation of the work by well-known Flemish writer Herman Brusselmans. It’s tough, defiant, horrific, at times, even comic and, like Mortier’s previous short films, above all, it’s a highly expressive film about music.

About the director

Koen Mortier (b. 1965) made his first short film Ana Temnei in 1996 and won a series of awards for it, including the Gold Award at the Worldfest in Houston in 1997. His second short A Hard Day’s Work was screened at over thirty international festivals, and won prizes in Brussels, Sarajevo and St. Petersburg, among others. In 1998 Mortier began working within his own production company CZAR.BE, a division of the Amsterdam-based company of the same name; under his own name and that of Lionel Goldstein, he made a number of commercials, winning various national and international prizes, including three Palmes d’Or at Cannes (2002, 2003, 2004). September 2002 saw the launch of the company CCCP, focusing on feature and documentary films, thanks to which he was able to make his feature debut Ex Drummer. This year the film won the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam IFF.