Zoë, 2007

ZOË

What do you want to prove?

LOVER

Prove? I want to be with you.

ZOË

But you’re not. You’re not.

Synopsis: A woman and a man are separating.

Cast: Zoë: Natali Broods * Frank Vercruyssen.

Year:2007| Length:11’30| format:16mm |

Language:Dutch | Subtitles:Eng & Fr

Screenplay: Dorothée van den Berghe

Natali Broods

Peter van Kraaij

Director: Dorothée van den Berghe

Co-director: Martine Temmerman

DOP: Jan Vancaillie

Camera: Benoit Theunissen

Sound Editing: Gert Janssen

Sound: Griet van Reeth

Production: International Film

Festival Rotterdam

Co-production: Sarah Bachelart

Johan Ruysseveldt

Art director: Bart Van Overberghe

Costume designer: Dorothée Catry

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Prizes & Mentions:

*Ghent: Special Jury Prize for Best Belgian Short Film

at the 34th Flanders International Film Festival

Festivals:

*Brussels: 10e Festival du Court Métrage

*Premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam

Press:

*Skrien:

“In making her short film Zoë, Belgian director Dorothée van den Berghe was inspired by Golden Palm-winner Elephant (2003), Van Sant’s interpretation of a bloodbath in a Columbian school. In it, long, elegant one shot-scenes lead to an inevitable and tragic end. Zoë, a film about the last time spent together between a married man and his mistress, consists of a single shot moving through her apartment, from the window, to the kitchen, to the bedroom, to the closing door and on to a new beginning, symbolised by the clicking sound of a lamp lighting up, which the exposed ex-lover installed in a last attempt at reconciliation. (…) Zoë portrays a woman in crisis. Portraying the end of a relationship in one take, the camera moves around the lead character, reflecting her uncertainty and deterritorialization. It keeps on spinning, in slow and undecisive figures, indicating that the sartrian search for intentionality has commenced. An uttermost intimate portrayal of tears and kisses.”

This film was made with the support of Gus Van Sant as part of the project “Meet the Maestro”, commisioned by the international film festival of Rotterdam.