Caroline Strubbe

Flemish director Caroline Strubbe has had a very successful career making documentary and fiction shorts, commercials and educational films for over twenty years. Her short film Melanomen won several prestigious prizes at a number of festivals in 1993, and her mid-feature silent film Taxi Dancer got several awards as well. But having her first feature film Lost Persons Area selected for the hallowed Critics’ Week at the biggest, most glamorous film festival in the world… is another thing entirely.

Lost Persons Area is a film about a dysfunctional family: Bettina and Marcus arouse great passions in each other, but they don’t pay too much attention to their daughter Tessa, who wanders off and collects junk whenever she can. When the new Hungarian engineer Szabolcs becomes entangled in their lives, tragedy is bound to strike. Strubbe studied at the Escuela Cinematografica in Barcelona, led by Spanish director Hector Favor. She describes her experience there as a real turning point: “I had been educated by nuns and suddenly I was living in abroad in a big city where I knew no one. It was the most important year of my life. I love discoveries and change, it felt like a liberation. I was happy to finally take my place in the world and to discover that making films could become a reality.” It seems that this sense of personal freedom is something that she has tried to maintain ever since.

After the success of francophone Belgian cinema in last year’s Cannes lineup (Eldorado, Rumba, Private Lessons, The Silence of Lorna), 2009 it seems to be the turn of works from Flanders, three of which are selected: Altiplano, The Alasness of Things, and Strubbe’s Lost Persons Area. Although, there’s no real collective aspect or particular movement in Flemish cinema right now, according to Strubbe: “Flemish cinema has been called very diverse. Just look at our architecture: hundreds of houses in all these different styles. Right now, you can see Flemish films in all sorts of genres. There’s no unity in the style.”

Displaying a strongly individualistic spirit also in other aspects of her life, she affirms, “I don’t think of myself as being linked to anyone because of the shared territory, language or blood relations. I don’t trouble myself with my heritage at all, I’m not connected to people just because they’re my family or because we’ve been born in the same country. You can see that in my movie: it’s situated in a no-man’s land and the girl doesn’t have any connection with her parents. It has to do with the cast of Lost Persons Area as well.”

As a matter of fact though, putting together the cast for the film was, unexpectedly, one of the most special experiences Strubbe had in her years making films. “For instance, when I met Sam for the part of Marcus, he told me he could relate to the story because his father had been a pilot, just like mine. It turned out that our fathers served together in Canada thirty years ago. My father actually gave me a slide which shows them posing in front of a jetfighter.”

Indeed it seems that the deeply personal is an integral part of the entire filmmaking process for Strubbe, and she admits to finding an important element of catharsis in it: “Making films is a must for me; it helps me deal with unresolved emotions and impressions. It’s a cliché, but for me, it’s partly therapeutic. I don’t find directing itself particularly interesting; it’s a necessary evil to let me tell my story. Now that the film has been finished, I feel liberated from the past. I can finally live again.” Her advice for budding filmmakers is true to her values of being sincere to oneself and, above all, independent: “Make everything you do personal and real. Look within, that’s the only way you’ll ever be able to distinguish yourself from other people. Combine your trade with another artistic discipline so you’re not too dependent and vulnerable.”

So how is she dealing with the big event that is Cannes? Well, this is one filmmaker who is taking her latest success entirely in her stride, and her plans for the festival are fairly simple: “The film has just been completed and I’m very tired. I hope the weather will be nice and that I’ll be able to swim in the sea.”

Interview by Jessica Hartmann, text by Luuk van Huet