Interview Peter Brosens (King of the Belgians)

Peter Brosens studied anthropology and urban geography. Actually a special choice for someone who now practices a creative profession. “As a child I was already interested in photography and film, but I don’t exactly come from an art-loving family. My family is more in the medical field, both my father and brother are fertility experts. When I mentioned that I wanted to study film, the reaction was rather disrespectful. “Go and get some diplomas first, then you can always do whatever you want later. A classic answer, but that’s how it went.” Brosens explains that his main focus was making slides. “If you place a slide on a light box and you put one next to it, you actually already create a story, a kind of tension. That is the basis of assembly. If you turn those images around, you get something completely different. That’s actually how I started.”

No experience

After his studies, Peter made three documentaries in Mongolia between 1993 and 1999. He says: “In 1998 I met Jessica (Woodworth, his co-director and life partner, MM) in a cafe. After we got married, she also made a documentary, and after ‘The Virgin Diaries’ (2002), which was shown at IDFA, we wanted to make a feature film together. Without experience, without having read a screenplay, let alone being on film sets. We did it our own way.”

And so the two traveled halfway around the world for their first two films together, ‘Khadak’ (2006) was made in Mongolia and for the follow-up ‘Altiplano’ (2009) they stayed for a while in Peru, South America. They shot the third film, ‘La cinquième saison’ (2012), literally in their backyard in Belgium. ‘King of the Belgians’ (2016) again has a European background.

Building blocks

“Our first three films felt a bit like a trilogy, a body of work. If we were to make another such film, about man’s violence against nature and thus against himself, or nature’s revenge on mankind, we would run the risk of repeating ourselves. To prevent that, we have chosen ‘King of the Belgians’ as our next project.” Peter continues: “All the building blocks of our stories come from reality, even if it is fiction. There were a number of things that came together for ‘King of the Belgians’: the formation of the Belgian government, which took more than five hundred days, and the article we read in the New York Times about Toomas Ilves, president of Estonia. During a state visit in Istanbul, he had to head back to Tallinn in a hurry, but because of the volcanic eruption in Iceland, that was not possible by plane. A minibus was hired and they traveled back through the Balkans. We thought that was such an interesting fact that it formed the basis for ‘King of the Belgians’, which was then still called ‘Kebab Royale’. “We found it interesting not only the location, Istanbul, as the starting point of the journey, because it is such a symbolic city – spread over two continents, but also the inner journey that the king makes. And we chose a king instead of a president because he can’t choose his profession. Imagine being born as a pilot or surgeon! There is a certain tragedy in that.”

No parody

Compared to ‘Altiplano’ and ‘Khadak’, the directing duo for ‘King of the Belgians’ has not done so much research. “When you make a film that is so deeply ingrained in the culture, then that film also has to be relevant to a local audience. If you don’t, you will be laughed at. And with good reason. We had the help of an anthropologist on those early movies to see if that whole universe, even if it’s fictional, is correct. At ‘King of the Belgians’ we did some research, but deliberately not too deep. We didn’t want to risk too much imitation. Nicolas III from ‘King of the Belgians’ is by no means a parody of the real king of Belgium. It is a Belgian king, and Belgium is a bit of an absurd country, so that gives some kind of background, but if there are any similarities, they are strictly coincidental.”

Filming efficiently

The film was supposed to be made in 28 days, eventually only 20. “We shot the film chronologically, a side effect of the choice of locations. We look for our locations ourselves, so I drove around Bulgaria a lot with a Bulgarian friend. There was a location in the Rhodope Mountains that was very important. At the end we were able to visit a village, where we had little expectations, but it turned out to be perfect. It was not much more than a square, a church, a shop, a stage and some houses, but we shot a large part of the film there.”

Peter adds: “The fact that we shot the film chronologically was a gift of importance, both for the actors and for us. For us, a scenario is not a manual, but a guideline. After shooting for a day, we would retire to the hotel and work out the scenes for the next day based on the content, artistic and emotional material we received that day. That was then a variation of what is in the screenplay, often even better. That meant we could often cut bits and pieces.” Was that not very hard, such long working days? Peter: “It was actually very relaxed. A hotel on the beach, after Mongolia where we had shooting days down to minus 38 degrees and in Peru where we were at an altitude between four and five thousand meters and you work very slowly – then this was nice!” Peter also mentions that he cannot imagine how other filmmakers do it, who are not together with a whole group. “If you’re making a film on a set and you commute up and down to Amsterdam, for example? I can’t imagine it. The dynamics that we create by working so closely together definitely benefit the film.”

How do they do that?

Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth make their films together in the broadest sense of the word. “We write, direct and produce together, but we also distributed ‘King of the Belgians’ together. Nobody in Belgium wanted to release the film there. In the meantime it has been released in more than thirty countries, but in Belgium nobody wanted it…” The Brosens-Woodworths did not become rich. “We also didn’t have a lot of capital to invest in the release, but the film has been screened in sixty places. The turnout was poor, but we did manage to pay the costs.” So it’s quite an adventure, to also market your own film yourself. Fortunately, the two on the film set are very well attuned to each other. “Directing is mainly about making decisions, and that has to be done quickly on a film set. Of course you cannot talk to the actors in pairs, that is too confusing for them and we are complementary in that regard. Jessica is very good in that area, she did the acting training herself, my affinity is more with the image and sound, so I am closer to the DOP.” Laughing: “I really don’t understand how a director does all this on his own. When you look at a monitor, you don’t see the detail of the game and vice versa. That takes so much time!” He adds that their method also means that they use few takes. “Unlike, for example, the Dardennes, they do fifty takes. That scene in ‘King of the Belgians’ in Dragan’s house, in the evening at the table, where the drink flows freely? We only had two pages of text and the actors improvised. We said ‘Action’, hid behind a rock and only after 45 minutes did we say ‘Cut!’. Everything from that scene comes from that take.”

Kusturica’s Universe

Stereotypes, like that scene during the alcohol-filled evening and the yogurt contest, are the basis of all comedies. It is inevitable that you will use it, says Peter. He explains: “Self-irony is important, we don’t want to make fun of anyone. There are certainly cultural clichés in ‘King of the Belgians’, but we have stayed far away from, for example, the stereotypes in Kusturica’s universe (Emir Kusturica, director of films like ‘Black Cat, White Cat’ and ‘Life is a Miracle’, MM). When you watch his movies, it’s like the whole Balkans are drinking and dancing. And while Duncan Lloyd is British, he hasn’t used the material to ridicule the King, which you would expect from a Brit.” He adds: “If you say ‘Belgium’ in England, they think it’s funny. But Duncan finds the development that the king is going through much more interesting.”

What would Peter say?

The role of Duncan Lloyd is played by Pieter van der Houwen. “He was our set photographer in Mongolia. We’ve known him for a long time and basically based the role of Duncan on him. Originally Duncan was a photographer in the screenplay, but gradually he became a filmmaker. That character is completely Pieter, when we were writing we always thought ‘what would Pieter say?’ He’s not an actor, but we couldn’t imagine another Duncan.” The most important role in ‘King of the Belgians’ is of course reserved for Peter van den Begin, who also played in ‘La cinquième saison’. “We knew right away that he was our king. Fortunately, he immediately said yes.”

The King of Belgium

Unfortunately, the real king of Belgium has not yet seen the film. “Of course we invited the royal couple to the world premiere in Venice, but we received a polite letter back that they were unable to attend. After that we invited them again for the Belgian premiere at the Ghent Film Festival, but we have heard nothing more about that. And they were not present at the gala performance in Bozar in Brussels, which is literally across the street from the palace.” Peter admits that he regrets that. “In Gothenburg I was told at a film festival that in Sweden, for example, it would be really unthinkable that the king would not come. He would have been in the front row. But in Belgium… well… ‘the great silence of the palace’…”