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PRODUCTION Belgium

Shooting underway on Monsaert’s debut feature, starring Wim Willaert

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Young Ghent-born director Peter Monsaert is currently shooting his debut feature, Offline, in Ghent. Having started last October, shooting is expected to wrap at the end of the month.

Offline centres on forty-something, out-of-work washing machine repairman Rudy. He decides to take back control of his life after a bad patch, but he notices with bitterness that those he abandoned along the way are not ready to welcome him with open arms. While the demons from the past come knocking at his door, a chance encounter on the Internet will change the course of his life.

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Rudy is played by Wim Willaert (pictured), a rare but cherished Flemish actor. Having first come to attention in When the Sea Rises, in a crazy duo with Yolande Moreau, he was later seen in films by Koen Mortie (Ex-Drummer [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and 22nd of May [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), and more recently in Frédéric Sojcher’s Hitler in Hollywood [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
. He stars alongside the actress discovered in Oxygen [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Anemone Valcke (Best Supporting Actress Award for this film at the Vlaamse Filmprijzen), and Mourade Zenguedi (The Barons [+see also:
film review
trailer
Interview with director and actress of…
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile
]
).

For the lighting, Monsaert has hired leading Flemish DoP Ruben Impens, who worked on Moscow, Belgium [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, The Misfortunates [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Felix van Groeningen
film profile
]
and Beyond the Steppes. The film is produced by Annemie Degryse for Lunanime (Lumière’s production arm), for whom this is also their debut (majority) feature. Lunanime recently co-produced Vanja d’Alcantara’s Beyond the Steppes, and Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli’s A Cat in Paris. The film is co-produced by Dominique Willaert for Victoria Deluxe.

Offline has received backing from the Vlaams Audiovisual Fund, the city of Ghent and Tax Shelter, and is slated for release by Lumière in autumn 2012.

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(Translated from French)

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