fancy-fair by Christophe Hermans

A graduate from the IAD film school in Belgium, Christophe Hermans brings a powerful drama into the Spectrum section attention. Fancy-Fair depicts a significant day in a woman’s life (Nathalie), as she breaks out of the mental asylum to attend a family reunion for her daughter’s school performance.

From the first scene, we are immediately introduced to Nathalie’s slightly offbeat behavior. Sibel Duquesne’s moving performance favours subtle fidgeting gestures, heightened enthusiasm and elusive facial expressions to successfully portray a ‘woman under the influence’. The film soon suggests that Nathalie’s inaptitude to be ‘normal’, or let’s say, cured, lies in the fact that the people closest to her resent her for her weakness. As she encounters her lover, his macho temperament implies the emotional blackmail that she has been enduring along the way. Her teenage daughter is ‘not in the mood’ either. Only her son (Jérémie Renier, L’enfant) treats her in a humane and tender way, and when a family fight sparks during the festivities, suppressed emotions arise violently to the surface.

Fancy-Fair is a naturalistic and minimalistic glimpse at the mechanisms behind a family on the rocks. The paradox lies in the fact that even if the mother is the one in mental care, bitterness urges the rest of the siblings to alienate themselves and go through individual breakdowns. Sadness from an irreparable break underline the film as Nathalie mutely perceives the hostility of her environment, making Hermans’ directorial work one to keep an eye upon for the future.

by Eftihia Stefanidi