Henri et les Isles by Bram Conjaerts

According to a recent report issued by the United Nations in 2006, city slickers now outnumber their country cousins for the first time in human history. On a European scale, migration from the countryside to more urban environments and the declining birth rate lead to growing suburbanized areas and depopulated rural ghost towns, such as the hamlet of Herstappe in the Belgian documentary Henri et les Isles.

Herstappe is the smallest municipality in the whole of Belgium with a population of just 82, including the chubby teenager Henri Prosnans, who serves as protagonist and narrator of the film. The other inhabitants we observe seem to be mainly senior citizens, with the notable exception of the gun-toting knucklehead Simon, who happens to be the mayor’s son. The film meanders through the daily life of the inhabitants of Herstappe. We witness a meeting in the town hall which leads to a shiny new Belgian flag replacing the tattered old rag, one of the elderly inhabitants is forced to move after the (unseen) loss of his wife, the town’s vintner is forced to sell his wine-making apparatus and meanwhile our cherub-like main character tirelessly cycles around, seemingly oblivious to the slow demise of his home town.

Considering that Belgium is facing an immense constitutional crisis, it’s strange that the film skirts over some issues that might have been worthwhile to explore, like the antagonism between the former mayor and the current one, the lack of social cohesion in Herstappe and the subsequent isolation felt by its inhabitants. Whether it was a conscious decision of director Bram Conjaerts to keep the subject matter light or a result of the brief length of the film might make for an interesting Q&A session, but it makes the film itself more or less inconsequential.

Luuk van Huet