BASTAARD

Daan is the 17-year-old son of a well-to-do middle-class family. Two years ago, his brother died in a car accident for which he still blames himself. One day, his mother lodges a homeless teenager, who quickly endears himself to her. Daan smells a rat and delves into the past of the newcomer who is all too eager to please. But at the same time, he is strangely fascinated by the young man and in order to blow off steam, he participates in illegal nocturnal fights. Soon, the tension mounts in the household and a confrontation is well-nigh inevitable… Mathieu Mortelmans is a rising star of Belgian cinema. At the 2013 BIFFF, he was already awarded a prize for his short CHAMBRE DOUBLE and in 2018, he even made it to the Academy Awards’ long list with ACCOMPLICES. His latest effort BASTAARD is a sultry Freudian thriller which doesn’t pale beside Anglo-Saxon examples. In the main parts, we recognize some well-known faces: Koen De Bouw (THE LAST TYCOON, THE MEMORY OF A KILLER, LOFT), Spencer Bogaert (LABYRINTHUS, VINCENT), and Tine Reymer (LOFT, THE PREMIER).