Inside the Palace (2018)

Directed by: Nelson Polfliet | 22 minutes | drama | Actors: Willeke van Ammelrooy, Goele Derick, Anouk Fortunier, Tomas Pevenage, Lotte Diependaele, Nona Buhrs, Soufiane Chilah, Elke Sharii Vanderbroeck, Mo Franken, Victor Vanhove, Annie Beynaerts

Not every graduating filmmaker can afford it: to get a big name for your graduation film. Nelson Polfliet managed to do this, but the novice Flemish director got a little anxious when he couldn’t get the financing. Thanks to a crowdfunding campaign, his project went ahead and the leading role in the ‘In the Palace’ written by him was thus played by none other than Willeke van Ammelrooy.

Willeke plays the role of the elderly Elvira, a widow who once made a career as a cabaret dancer. Due to the loss of her husband Jean and the waning interest of the public in her variety theater, she has ended up in isolation. Delusions are the order of the day. In her head she is still the attractive dancer, who smiles lasciviously at the audience, but in the meantime only has eyes for the attractive trumpet player, her Jean. She would like nothing more than to see him one more time, but instead of the God to whom she pleads, the Devil intercepts her wish. Because the Devil doesn’t have much to do after all – after all, Catholicism is also on the decline, he decides to pay her a visit, with two graceful assistants by his side.

‘In the Palace’ looks neat. Polfliet shows an excellent sense of composition and detail. The cast is a bit theatrical, which fits the story. Willeke van Ammelrooy is beautiful in small gestures and glances; it is not without reason that she received the prize for best acting performance in a short film at the International Short Film Festival. The story has slightly absurd features, but the exact intentions of the story only become clear with some background information. The film is too subtle and not everyone will grasp the intentions. That’s a shame, because the feelings of loneliness and abandonment that the film conveys are universal. ‘In the Palace’ therefore makes much less of an impression than it should.