Is Belgium still hot filming destination? – Thousands flock to screening of ‘Ten Years’

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LOS ANGELES, April 2, (Agencies): With its diverse landscapes and tax shelter, Belgium has long been known as a hotspot for European and international shoots, but the country has mostly been making headlines in the last few months for its nest of ISIS-trained jihadis who are behind the Paris and Brussels attacks.

As it labors under the grip of not only terrorism but also counter-terrorist reaction, the current situation of Belgium is already inspiring TV and film coverage. “Waltz With Bashir” director Ari Folman is preparing a TV series set in Brussels immediately after the four-day lockdown that authorities launched in November during a manhunt for the perpetrators of the Paris attacks. Spanish-Belgian director Jose Luis de la Fuente, meanwhile, is making a documentary about Molenbeek, the Brussels neighborhood that harbored the terrorist cell behind the Paris and Brussels assaults that killed 130 people and 32 people, respectively.

In recent years, Belgium has been welcoming a wide range of high-profile film and TV shoots, from Leslye Headland’s “Bachelorette,” to the TV drama “The Missing” and the Oscar-winning “The Danish Girl.” Just last year 37 feature films shot in the capital. While it is too soon to predict what impact the recent attacks will have on the volume of international productions, it’s safe to say that filmmakers and producers, including those from the US, might be inclined to explore other location options in North America.

Security

A week after the attacks in Brussels, the security level is still at 3, meaning that the threat remains serious and real but filming in public places is not forbidden by Belgian authorities. Only the commune of Molenbeek is still not greenlit for filming. The 18 other districts in Brussels are open, said the Brussels film commission’s spokesperson.

So far, little is known of the productions that were directly affected by the attacks in Brussels. Among the films shooting in the capital on March 22 was Dany Boon’s “Raid Dingue,” an action comedy about France’s anti-terrorism squad, which was scheduled to shoot at Brussels airport shortly after the attacks. Meanwhile, another production, an English-language thriller directed by Everardo Gout (“Dias de Gracia”), “Again,” was supposed to shoot during the attacks but got postponed. “Again’s” production shingle, Paris-based Les Enfants Terribles, is now looking to relocate the shoot in Canada for both security and financial reasons.

Tax

Indeed, for many years Belgium was the prime destination for Gallic producers seeking Europe’s best tax incentive, but that is no longer the case: France’s government has been fighting the rise of French runaway shoots towards Belgium. To do so, the government has strengthened the country’s tax scheme so that local producers can’t combine the Belgian tax shelter with the French tax rebate.

On the insurance front, companies such as Tokyo Marine, Circle, Axxa and Alliance, which handle film productions, have also been taking into account the risk of terrorist attacks in the wake of recent assaults across Europe.

“Since the Paris attacks last November and more recently what happened in Belgium, we’ve been discussing with insurance companies to get them to adapt their services to these new terrorism risks. In the meantime we continue working on a case-by-case basis,” said Anne-Severine Lucas, an insurance broker for Gras Savoye. “Eventually, insurance companies will be looking to restrict the perimeter of the guarantee to 5 or 10 kilometers around the shoot, or just impose no limitation but increase the insurance rate.”

In spite of the current context, Belgium remains fairly attractive for many producers, even Matthias Weber and Thibault Gast at Paris-based 2425 Films. Their latest pic “The Eavesdropper,” with “The Intouchables” star Francois Cluzet, was shooting in a warehouse in Molenbeek during the manhunt, just two streets away from the massive police raid of Nov. 16.

Weber said the lockdown had little impact on the production since most of the filming was taking place in a private location, but they lost several shooting permits.

But Weber points out that the experience didn’t change his views on Belgium and Brussels. “We chose Brussels for the diversity and richness of decors, the skills and professionalism of local crews and all that remains true today,” added Weber.

“There’s been attacks in London, Madrid and Paris before and obviously we’re still interested in shooting in these beautiful locations. Terrorism is part of our lives now, it’s the plague of the 21th century and we won’t give in to fears,” Weber added.

Also:

HONG KONG: Thousands of moviegoers on Friday flocked to mass screenings of Hong Kong film “Ten Years”, a provocative futuristic portrayal of the city that has riled China.

Released at the end of last year, it has been a box office hit locally — despite only getting a short run in cinemas — and has raised hackles on the mainland amid increasing fears in Hong Kong over Beijing’s tightening grip.

The series of five short films, each by a different Hong Kong director, depicts the city in 2025 where young children in military uniform prowl the streets, the local language of Cantonese is disappearing and one protester goes as far as self-immolation.

The filmmakers say they feel it was only given short sporadic runs at cinemas across Hong Kong after its release in December due to political reasons, as it was commercially a runaway hit, selling out at the cinemas where it was shown.

Many residents were left disappointed after missing out on the movie due to its limited run — and the filmmakers sought to remedy that with Friday’s screenings.

People flocked to simultaneous screenings at 34 locations across Hong Kong Friday evening from cafes and churches to public spaces including the city’s government headquarters.

Hundreds of people sat on the ground and on plastic chairs to watch the film at the government complex which was at the centre of pro-democracy rallies that blocked the city’s streets for months in 2014. Some cried at the film’s end.

Tina Wu, who couldn’t get tickets to watch “Ten Years” before cinemas stopped running it, was happy to finally see it.

“The government doesn’t want us to have the chance to watch the movie, and now we get the chance so we are quite excited,” Wu, 56, said.

Another woman applauded the filmmakers for taking on tough topics.

“I think we should come out to support the people who made the movie because they were willing to tackle something that’s politically sensitive, that’s very rare,” Queenie, in her 40s, told AFP, without providing her last name.

“The movie is able to bring to life something that we imagined but were not able to fully express,” she added.

Friday’s screenings come ahead of the Hong Kong Film Awards Sunday, where “Ten Years” is nominated for a best movie.

Broadcasts of the awards ceremony on the mainland have been pulled, with the movie’s nomination widely believed to be the reason.

China’s state-run Global Times newspaper has hit out at the film as “totally absurd” and a “virus of the mind”.

Hong Kong’s freedoms are protected by a deal made with Britain when the city was handed back to China in 1997, but there is growing anxiety that Beijing is eroding that autonomy.

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