Flanders

Bruno Dumont directs this French WWI drama starring Samuel Boidin as Demester, an emotionally inarticulate young farmhand who is in love with pretty young village girl Barbe (Adelaide Leroux), but finds it difficult to express his feelings for her in any way apart from sex. Frustrated by her lover's inability to show her affection, Barbe looks for love elsewhere, and Demester is horrified when he discovers the nature of her relationship with Blondel (Henri Cretel). When the two men are called up to fight in the war, they find themselves posted to the same place - an unnamed location in the Middle East - where the brutality and horror of war erodes their humanity, and contrasts starkly with their quiet rural existence at home. Meanwhile, back in France, Barbe discovers that she is pregnant with Blondel's child, and her already fragile emotional state threatens to escalate into a total nervous breakdown. The film premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

Director: Bruno Dumont
Producer: Rachid Bouchareb
Producer: Jean Bréhat
Writer: Bruno Dumont
Actor: Adelaide Leroux
Actor: Samuel Boidin
Actor: Henri Cretel
Actor: Jean-Marie Bruveart
Actor: David Poulain
Actor: Patrice Venant
Actor: David Legay
Actor: Inge Decaesteker