Maarten Bernaerts of Flemish production house Diplodokus talks to Business Doc Europe about his current doc slate, which includes the delicate and lyrical What Makes Us Boys, which received a jury commendation at Connext 2019.
“It was the central characters who eventually convinced me to say yes on this project,” says Maarten Bernaerts of young brothers Sam and Daan in Janet van den Brand and Timothy Wennekes’ What Makes Us Boys.
The intriguing doc is described as a poetic film about two inseparable young brothers growing up in a Dutch suburb. Daan is Sam’s big brother, someone he looks up to. Sam is Daan’s little brother, with whom he shares everything. They are both dealing with things kids their age aren’t supposed to worry about. Daan has a rare illness which prevents him doing things other kids can do, while Sam is struggling with his identity as he used to be a girl named Mara.
“Because of the talent of the directors I immediately wanted to follow their new idea,” explains Bernaerts, who produced previously Ceres, directed by Van den Brand and shot by Wennekes, a film also about young kids on the cusp of adolescence.
The film is currently in post-production with financing complete. “We are back at RE>CONNEXT a year later and ready to send it to festivals,” comments Bernaerts. “We just hope that all festivals will take place physically so we can really show this film to the public and not only online on platforms. The first festival we want to try is Berlinale, because it’s there that Ceres went to premiere and we think What Makes Us Boys can do the same.”
The producer explains how Diplodokus has in-house creatives who work mainly in doc series and that their feature docs are mainly produced with external talent.
“The series are more for television and our films are more for cinema,” he says. “For TV we are more mainstream but for out films we follow more the vision of our director.”
Philippe Niclaes’ work-in-progress As Long As We Can focuses on three grocery shops that are the last of their kind, with shopkeepers fighting both for their existence and for the sake of their regular customers.
“We immediately saw the potential,” stresses Bernaerts. “We think the film can be a public favourite. It is very recognisable for a Belgian audience – the shops that are vanishing and the big malls, and the online business that is booming – but it’s a universal story. It’s a generation that is disappearing. It’s a good subject.”
The €139,500 film is fully financed and co-produced with VRT/Canvas. Currently in post-production with an ETA of Summer 2021, Bernaerts is looking pre-sales, sales agents, distributors, festivals and broadcasters. “This is his Philippe’s debut but actually he is a very experienced TV director, so now he is taking his first steps into film. To apply his own vision, that was his own motivation.”
Another work-in-progress is Dorus Masure and Ischa Clissen’s Katla, set in Iceland and about construction within a volcanic danger zone. In post-production and 100% financed, Diplodokus is looking to deliver the film Summer 2021.
“It is by two directors who we know already very well,” says Bernaerts. “We are well aware of what they are capable of. They had already done work in remote landscapes so we knew their way of telling a story and [how they] set down an atmosphere in film language.”
“So they went to Iceland and fell in love with this story of a volcano that is about to erupt,” he continues. “For me it is also a kind of biblical way to tell this story. Mankind who tries to fight nature to get a profit out of it and forgets about the potential dangers. It is very powerful and universal.”
“What I also like about working with directors is that we can also give our input and it’s a collaboration. It’s not like we give them a carte blanche, and they just go ahead, but there is a dialogue between us and we can also influence the project and contribute to it,” Bernaerts adds. “There is absolutely a sense of mutual trust.”
A brand new project at RE>CONNEXT is Where Dreams Go to Sleep by brothers Maarten Stuyck and Lennart Stuyck, who are very much within the Diplodokus fold.
The film follows Belgian neurologist Steven Laureys who heads up the multidisciplinary team of the Coma Science Group in Liège, and is trying to unravel some of the mysteries that surround human consciousness. He does this by studying people with exceptional brains, be it those who are locked in their own body, people who’ve had a near-death experience, champion free divers or Tibetan monks.
“He walks his own path and he likes experimental ways to discover the ways of the brain,” says Bernaerts. “And because of this we really believe in the potential of the film. It won’t be a purely scientific approach. It will shine a light more in aspects of what makes us human… The approach of Leonard and Maarten is very cinematic.”
In development and budgeted at €330,000, the producer points out that it will be very much a festival film with a lot of international potential and that he is in advanced talks with broadcaster VRT/Canvas.
The Stuyck brothers are also directing the doc series The Pirate King about the sting seizure by Belgian police of high high-ranking Somali pirate Mohammed Abdi Hassan, known by the nickname Afweyne, or Big Mouth, after he was lured to Belgium to work as an adviser on a feature film.
Currently in pre-production, the €652,000 English/Somali-language production, co-produced with VRT/Canvas, is slated for delivery Autumn 2022. At RE>CONNEXT, Diplodokus is looking for pre-sales and a sales agent.
“It’s a story-driven series and we want to construct this story again,” says Bernaerts. “We want to go for a 360-degree approach and talk to everyone who was involved, and we are succeeding in that. We talk to the pirates. We talk to the police. We talk to justice and we talk to the victims. We believe in it and we are convincing all parties to engage in the process.”
