Girl

Colour, 35mm
Belgium, 2002, 94 min
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

Muriel (20) needs to prove she is not a little girl anymore: she leaves her parental home, her dull boyfiend and her boring job in a small provincial town and moves to Brussels. But life in the big city is not at all what she expected. To find a new job is not as easy as she thought, and to find new friends is even more difficult. The only friend she has is her landlady Laura, a hysterical woman with a messy love life who dreams of a singing career. But is she really a friend? When Muriel falls in love with Laura’s younger boyfriend, Oscar, everything changes. Muriel discovers she has to live her own life instead of imitating that of someone else. There are some changes back home, too: Muriel’s mother, Martha, also embarks upon a new phase in her life. She slowly starts to see herself as a woman again, not just a mother. And Laura also has to finally decide what to do with her life.

About the director

Dorothée van den Berghe (1968, Gent) was raised by her mother in a hippy commune in Amsterdam. She studied in Brussels. In 1993 she made her first short film, Bekentenissen, in 1994 another short, Rue verte, and in 1998 a third, BXL minuit, which was also screened in Karlovy Vary. All three were selected for numerous festivals and won several awards. In 1995 Dorothée Van Den Berghe began working for TV: she wrote and directed the TV series Keer uw boot om en bid (1995) and Achterland (2000). In 2000 she directed the documentary Femmes de Chambre. Meisje (2002) is her first feature film.