Iceberg

Colour, 35 mm
Belgium, 2005, 84 min
Section: Focus on Belgian Film

Synopsis

Fiona manages a fast food restaurant where, one evening, she accidentally locks herself in the cold store. After a long, cold night she comes to realise two things. One: her husband and two young children didn’t notice her disappearance, not even at breakfast. Two: she feels an irresistible attraction to everything chilly and cold, all things icy and snowy. She sneaks into a refrigerated lorry as part of a quest to reach the distant North and find the iceberg of the film’s title – and perhaps new love? This debut film clearly demonstrates the directing trio’s self-confessed marvel for the burlesque, particularly the slapstick or clowning antics of such masters as Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati. Here and there, the ‘supercooled’ humour, serene camera work and tragicomic poetry call to mind the restrained cinematic style of Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki.

About the director

Filmmaking duo Dominique Abel (b. 1957, Belgium) and Fiona Gordon (b. 1957, Canada) have managed, through their little theatre company poignantly named Courage Mon Amour, to build an international reputation for quirky/funny, circus-like stage productions, such as La danse des poules and Histoire sans gravité. They have also made a few short films, full of visual humour, such as Merci Cupidon, Rosita and Walking on the Wild Side. For their feature debut Iceberg the duo became a trio since, alongside Abel and Gordon, the film was also written, acted and directed by Bruno Romy (b. 1958, France). In 2008 their collaboration resulted in another colourful and burlesque film for cinema, Rumba. Dominique Abel: "We come from theatre, so we are used to appealing to the audience’s imagination. If we want a tree on stage we have to mimic the branches with our arms: this outlook we brought with us to the silver screen.”