SOMEONE ELSE'S HAPPINESS (2005) [feature]

Belgium/The Netherlands (MIFF2006,Emergence: New Women Filmmakers)
Director: Fien Troch

“Her (Troch's) almost scientific approach, married to an intense emotional investment in her characters, recalls elements from Ingmar Bergman's most celebrated films.” - Toronto International Film Festival

Fien Troch's first feature film is a swirling collection of character-based vignettes bound together by the hit-and-run death of a child in a rural village. A wealthy divorcee discovers the child's body and becomes inextricably involved when facts are obscured and everyone starts pointing fingers and fixing the blame. However, in such a small town where lives are interlinked, no one is truly innocent and everyone seemingly has blood on their hands.

Making impressive use of her tableau-like setting and photography, Troch has created a film that is daring, convincing and oppressive - with just a small dose of black humour. There is also a menacing prescience at work here, recalling Belgian's series of real-life child murders in the 90s that nearly ripped the country apart.

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D Fien Troch P Antonino Lombardo S Fien Troch WS Celluloid Dreams L Dutch w/English subtitles TD 35mm/col/2005/98mins

Fien Troch was born in Londerzeel, Belgium, in 1978. Her films include Wooww (1999, short), Maria (2000, short) and Cool Sam and Sweet Suzie (2001, short).

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