Lost Persons Area

Colour, 35 mm
Belgium, Netherlands, Hungary, 2009, 109 min
Section: Focus on Belgian Film

Synopsis

The story, located for the most part in an industrial no-man’s land, between tall electricity pylons on which the leading male characters are working, is not easy to sum up. This reflective, highly personal debut by writer-director Caroline Strubbe doesn’t rely on a strict narrative line. It offers reflections of solitude, feelings of disquiet and longings, all observed through a searching, roving camera. The film is an intimate and mysterious chronicle of relationships in general and family relations in particular. The young daughter Tessa is more or less left to her own devices, but manages to fill her days with rangy rambles and a strange passion for collecting things. For her part, her mother Bettina appears to dream of another life: a more normal one or, perhaps, on the contrary, a more adventurous one. Lost Persons Area is a subtle drama about restless people’s search for happiness.

About the director

Caroline Strubbe (b. 1965) studied film in Barcelona and Leuven and quickly gained recognition for all manner of documentaries, including Une mouche dans la salade and Un portrait de la Belgique, and for her award-winning shorts Melanomen (1992) and Taxi Dancer (1997). She gained further experience as a production assistant, assistant director, and scriptwriter. Lost Persons Area is her feature debut. She herself wrote the script for this Belgian-Dutch-Hungarian coproduction, which received backing from the likes of the Arte cultural channel. Lost Persons Area was selected for the Semaine de la critique at Cannes last year, where it won the prize for Best Script. Caroline Strubbe: "To my mind Cannes is a reference point for unconventional cinema, a place where I feel at home.”