Award-winning Belgian writer-director Wannes Destoop is at Connext with his completed first feature Holy Rosita.
Destoop’s film details the story of a woman who desperately wants to become a mother but people around her disapprove because she can barely look after herself. When Rosita becomes pregnant, she decides to keep it a secret from her friends and peers.
“I want to tell stories that give voice to vulnerable people to send out a strong message about people in society that are often under- represented on screen,” says Destoop.
The filmmaker first made his mark with the short film Swimsuit 46 (Badpakje 46) which won the jury prize at Cannes in 2011. He went on to co-write and direct the tragicomic TV series Albatros that was picked up internationally by sales agent Wild Bunch TV and won the Prix Europa for best European TV fiction series in 2021.
The series detailed the story of 10 obese men and women who want to improve their lives and go to a slimming camp in the Ardennes. It was produced by Gilles Coulier and Gilles De Schryver’s Ghent- based De Wereldvrede. The production outfit, which has further credits including War Of The Worlds, Stephanie and Cargo, encouraged Destoop to talk through his big screen ambitions.
“I started talking to Gilles and Gilles about different ideas,” he recalls of the process. “It was like ping pong, back and forth asking what they found interesting or what they thought would be a good starting point for a script. We didn’t have a first draft or anything, it was ideas, and inspirational conversations.”
Those conversations birthed Holy Rosita and Destoop worked on the script with actor Janne Desmet and Tom Dupont, with whom he had collaborated on Albatros. De Wereldvrede’s Wouter Sap produced alongside the two Gilles.
Destoop and De Wereldvrede applied to Screen Flanders and its Flaners Audiovisual Fund (VAF) for its three financing phases: Story and script development and finally production funding.
VAF awarded a toal of €750,000 to support the project at the beginning of 2022 and production began in October of last year. Further backing came from Screen flanders (€180,000) and the Belgian tax shelter (€650,000), and distributor Cineart, as well as digital distributor Telenet and private equity.
It shot for 28 days largely on location in Ostend. “The story of Rosita takes place near the seaside. It’s not important that it’s Ostend but it is important it is filmed near the sea and the audience feels that,” says Destoop.
For the filmmaker, shooting a feature is the highest form of art and everything in his career so far has led to this. “I’m more mature than when I was making my student shorts,” he says. ”I can tell stories now with more layers, greater nuance and more complicated depths of emotion.”
He didn’t take the responsbility lightly. “People have to pay for tickets to go and see a film in the cinema, they have to make an extra effort to see your work,” he says.
Destoop enjoyed a freedom not always afforded filmmakers making their debuts and did the casting himself. “I thought it was important for such an emotional story that I was hand-on with the casting. I needed to believe in the characters more than anyone.”
The film stars Daphne Agten as Rosita in her first film lead. “The whole story is about Rosita,” says Destoop. “She is in every scene and it was a very important casting decision,” he says.
The supporting cast is led by Jos Geens, Cilou David, Mieke De Groote and Delfine Bafort.
Destoop is at Connext with the De Wereldvrede team to pique the interest of international distributors, sales agents and festivals.
“I hope the film delivers on my desire to give a voice to people and stories not always heard,” he explains.
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