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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Belgium / The Netherlands / Germany

Hans Herbots kicks off filming on Ritual

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- Following the 2014 film The Treatment, the Belgian director is now adapting another book by the British writer of fiction noir Mo Hayder

Hans Herbots kicks off filming on Ritual
Hans Herbots on the set of Ritual (© Eyeworks/Nyklyn)

Belgian director Hans Herbots has just kicked off filming on Ritual, which is another adaptation of a work (Ritual) by British author Mo Hayder.

Hans Herbots made his name internationally by way of The Treatment [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, released in 2014, but he has also directed series such as Riviera, and The Serpent [+see also:
trailer
series profile
]
starring Tahar Rahim, which proved a hit with UK audiences on the BBC and will soon be available worldwide on Netflix. And whilst the novel Herbots is adapting is once again a work by English author Mo Hayder, the story unfolding in Ritual is resolutely Belgian.

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The film introduces us to Kiki, an underwater investigator for the criminal police. From the very outset of her career, she has had to contend with the sexist comments and attitudes of her male colleagues. When she discovers a severed hand in a canal in Brussels, she is obliged to collaborate with Inspector Nick Cafmeyer. The hand appears to have been sawn off while the victim was still alive: Nick is convinced that they have a settling of scores in the drugs world on their hands, whereas Kiki, who trusts her experience in the area, has a whole other theory on the matter. She finds herself caught up in a series of events, which she won’t come out of unscathed…

Flemish actress Marie Vinck (Speechless [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Oxygen [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) is playing the main character, while Geert Van Rampelberg appears alongside her, stepping back into the shoes of Inspector Nick Cafmeyer, whom he previously portrayed in The Treatment. Starring opposite them is French-Cameroonian actor Eeiq Ebouaney (recently seen in Bronx and Earth and Blood [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Julien Leclercq
film profile
]
), playing a man close to the father of the young investigator.

Ritual is produced by Peter Bouckaert on behalf of Eyeworks Film & TV Drama, in co-production with Phanta Film (The Netherlands), Atlas Film (Germany) and Belgian TV network VTM. The film will be distributed in Belgian cinemas in early 2022, courtesy of Kinepolis Film Distribution, with international sales in the hands of Be For Films.

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(Translated from French)

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