His first feature hasn't even been released yet, but Michiel Blanchart already has a US agent and a contract with Sam Raimi's production company, which is currently working on an English-language feature adaptation of his latest short, You're Dead Hélène, which won the Grand Prize at the 2021 Gérardmer Festival and was shortlisted for the Oscars. With Night Call [+lee también:
crítica
entrevista: Michiel Blanchart
ficha de la película] (released on 28 August in France via Gaumont and on 4 September in Belgium via Lumière), he skilfully and sincerely delivers a nocturnal, urban crime thriller firmly rooted in its time.

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Cineuropa: How would you present the film in a few words?
Michiel Blanchart: I'd say it's a social thriller that very quickly turns into an action film. It's a real entertainment film, popular and yet reflective of the world we live in.

How did the project come about?
After my short film You’re Dead Hélène, I had lots of feature-length projects, but they seemed too ambitious. When I was talking to one of my producers, he said to me: "Why don't you write us a quick, hard-hitting film that we can shoot in Brussels without too much money?" I'd always had the fantasy that my first feature would revolve around a fairly simple concept. It turned out to be: one character, one city, one night. I very quickly came up with the idea of the locksmith, who opens many doors to many worlds, a very fertile ground for the cinema I wanted to make. And then in 2020, there were the Black Lives Matter demonstrations all over the world, and in Belgium as elsewhere, there's a real question about police violence. It's a burning social issue, and one that moves me and makes me angry.

During the writing process, the film became more and more ambitious, but we were lucky enough to get support fairly quickly. And then everything came together around the character of Mady. In films, when an ordinary character finds himself embroiled in this kind of adventure, you always wonder why he doesn't simply go to the police. This question has a very strong resonance when applied to a young black man. We understand why he doesn't dare call the police, his fear is legitimate. We understand why he's trying to find a way out on his own, and this leads to issues and twists that touch on subjects that are important to me. Mady fully represents our history and our times, yet he's a hero we haven't seen much of in Belgian cinema.

He's the ultimate anti-hero, forced to wear a costume that's too big for him.
Yes, an anti-hero, but not in the sense that his values aren't fair or upright, but because he's a gentle, sensitive, honest person who doesn't seek attention. In an unjust world, after going through terrible trials, he nevertheless discovers the strength to do what he believes is right, with all the risks that entails, even if it means paying the consequences.

In the current context, where the far right is in the lead just about everywhere in Europe, where ordinary racism is becoming more and more outspoken, where police violence is on the increase, it was important for me to imagine this hero. But with a touch of romance at the end, Mady is the embodiment of humanist hope, the man who helps his fellow man despite differences and injustices.

Around Mady's trajectory, there's action, spectacular scenes, including a few chases. How did you go about it?
I've been living in Brussels for ten years now, and I wanted to have fun in my city, to reappropriate it with the codes of the cinema I love. In the action films that I love, every action scene has a narrative purpose to move the story forward and develop the character. In each scene, Mady is faced with choices. These choices will show the extent of his resources and his ability to exploit his skills. Even if he's not an action hero, he always manages to come out on top. At the same time, he faces moral dilemmas. That's why I treat the action scenes like dramatic scenes. They are often very intense, very emotional, and demand a lot from the actors. I wanted the action scenes to be very neat, playing with the geography of the city. But I also wanted us to empathise with the two characters who are fighting, to understand the motivations of each of them, to take care of the emotional stakes in short.

What was the biggest challenge?
To make a great, playful adventure film that never forgets that at its heart there is a character and his emotional journey! I wanted to show that even in Belgium, you can make a generous film that uses the evocative power of cinema to talk about important things, breaking down the barriers between auteur films, social films and genre films. These are all boxes that don't make much sense to me, and which are very specific to Europe, and even to the French-speaking world.