Fien Troch

Source: Copyright Angela Otten

Fien Troch

Back in 2016, leading Flemish auteur Fien Troch won the best director award in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section for her drama Home, about troubled adolescents. Now, a full six years later, she is in post-production on, and putting the final touches to, her next feature Holly.

The film is one of the buzz projects being presented as a work in progress at Connext, the annual industry showcase for new films and TV dramas made in Flanders and Brussels which is taking place in Antwerp from October 10-11 and online from October 10-24.

Holly is set in the aftermath of a big school fire. In the wake of the disaster, a 15-year-old girl is treated by a community in mourning as a saviour with a special talent to heal.

“I am very interested in this word ‘innocence,’ and what it might mean, especially with children and teenagers,” Troch says of the project. “Innocence is also related in this story to what it means to do good, to be good - why do you want to be good?”

Casting was crucial. Troch had to find “a regular teenager” but one with the power and charisma which Holly possesses. 

“It was a very subtle and complicated thing we were looking for,” the director says of the long audition process which led to teenage newcomer Cathalina Geeraerts securing the role. “We just saw girls, girls, girls and she was one of the first girls I saw. Basically, we found her quite quickly but I continued casting for another half year.”

The more people she saw, the more convinced Troch became she already knew the right choice.

Teaming with the Dardennes

Cineart is already aboard to handle distribution in the Benelux and the film has some illustrious co-producers. Troch is working for the first time with double Palme d’Or winners the Dardenne brothers and their company, Les Films Du Fleuve, as a co-producer.

“I’ve known them for a long time before this collaboration. They are very picky in the projects they choose.T he fact they read the script and they were very enthusiastic was already step one. If they don’t like a script, it’s clear they just would not do it,” Troch says. “They had remarks which were very useful but I don’t think they felt they should correct me.”

Holly

Source: VAF

‘Holly’

The lead producers are Brussels-based Prime Time and Mirage. The Netherlands’ Topkapi, Luxembourg’s Tarantula and France’s Agat are also on board as co-producers. 

Small screen drama

During the Covid period, Troch directed two episodes of Liverpool-set UK TV series, The Responder, starring Martin Freeman. “It was good timing because I was far enough from the pre-production of Holly so that wouldn’t be endangered,” she says.

Troch wanted to “wet her feet” and see if directing small screen drama suited her. Given the pandemic, it was also ”very interesting to get a job money-wise!”

In future, Troch has “an interest maybe to make my own TV show” but acknowledges she is not used to working on other people’s projects. “I enjoyed it but mostly I learned so many things. Mostly, I learned if I ever do something for TV again, I want to have more control. But I know that’s the way it goes.

She also had to make some sacrifices, shooting away from home for two months, unable to return home because of Covid. With two children, she says that was tough.

Holly was made with trusted collaborators who have also worked on the director’s previous features, among them editor Nico Leunen, cinematographer Frank Van den Eeden and producer Antonino Lombardo. “My work is not that conventional. They [the collaborators] understand what I am trying to do. What I do is quite vulnerable. It can easily be destroyed,” Troch says of her team. “I felt very supported.”

As for being viewed as part of a new Belgian wave of filmmakers alongside figures such as Lukas Dhont and Felix van Groningen, Troch regards that with mixed feelings. “Belgian cinema is not very comparable. That’s the nice thing. Belgium is a very electric country…but it wouldn’t feel as if I lose any of my identity being in that group. If you’re in a group of quality, you are just happy you are in that group,” she says.

 

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