European Films

A father searches for answers about his lost daughter in an isolated village in the Ardennes region in the Belgian thriller De indringer (The Intruder). The cinematic debut of TV director Frank van Mechelen is rife with all the genre clichés one would expect from such a premise, including the retarded village idiot and a mountain of red herrings that would directly qualify as the highest peak of the idyllic forest region, but despite this, Ward Hulselmans’s script and especially Joris Brouwers' brisk editing keep things well-paced until the final twenty minutes, when De indringer comes up with a convoluted explanation of what is essentially an easy way out.

Flemish actor Koen De Bauw (often labelled the Belgian Brad Pitt but actually more of a Lowlands version of Clive Owen) stars as the Tom Vansant, a doctor who goes insane after the disappearance of his daughter Louise (Lien van Cant) to the point of including shredded photos of her in his home-made candles. Having been forced to stay home from work, he takes all his time to investigate what has happened to his lost daughter, eventually ending up in a Walloon village in the Ardennes that is so backwards that the vinyl record-playing juke box in the local bar must be considered modern rather than vintage. Tom’s lead is the young Charlotte (newcomer Maaike Neuville), a wild-haired blonde who lives in the village. A former runaway, she vanished 10 days before Louise did and has probably seen her.

De indringer is high on atmosphere throughout. The exquisitely lit and carefully composed widescreen lensing from Lou Berghmans is ravishing, making the most of the film’s splendid locations whilst refraining from turning the film into an Ardennes Tourism Board advert. The film’s first hour is also expertly paced using silences and small character moments to offset the tension of the main narrative.

Already co-stars on the Flemish thriller De zaak Alzheimer (Memory of a killer), De Bauw and Els Dottermans, who plays a Flemish outsider in the village, seize the opportunities offered by these moments to show of their considerable acting chops and develop their characters beyond the stock templates they were offered by the script. Both create engaging characters, though their romance still feels perfunctory despite attempts to tie it properly into the plot. Strangely, editor Joris Brouwers and director Frank Van Mechelen know how to get the most out of these in-between scenes, whilst their treatment of the main action sequences in the latter half of the film is lacklustre at best.

The film falls apart in the final reel because of this and screenwriter Ward Hulselmans’s decision to hide the relatively simple explanation of what really happened behind a waterfall of smoke and mirrors and triple plot twists that are so ridiculous the film almost veers into parody territory. A shame, because the first hour is truly engaging and a neat showcase for the talents of all involved.

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