Many Heavens Above the Seventh (2017)

Directed by: Jan Matthys | 119 minutes | drama | Actors: Brit Van Hoof, Koen de Graeve, Sara de Roo, Peter Seynaeve, Viviane de Muynck, Nell Cattrysse, Herman Gilis, Lucas de Mulder, Jos Verbist, Ariane Van Vliet, Willy Thomas, Mieke Verdin

Tyrants can disrupt an entire society. Or a family. We find a tyrant of the most mundane kind in the Flemish feature film ‘Many heavens above the seventh’. In it, old Jeanne remotely controls the lives of her grown daughters and her husband, who is drowning in alcohol. Jeanne is an evil toddler in the body of a 68-year-old. A toddler who whines, sucks, vittates, curses and complains all day long.

In psychiatric terms, Jeanne is a textbook example of a cluster B psycho, a cluster in which we meet sociable types like the narcissist, sociopath and borderline. In ‘Many Heavens Above the Seventh’ we zoom in on the relatives of such a pathological case. Husband Jos tolerates Jeanne because he would rather have a bad relationship than be left alone. Daughter Elsie is married to Jeanne’s satisfaction with a good match, but with the help of a new love she slowly revolts. Granddaughter Lou has her own problems.

The biggest victim is youngest daughter Eva, who is so systematically beaten by Jeanne that not an ounce of self-esteem is left. In her desperate quest for appreciation, she inevitably attracts the wrong types. Moreover, all the criticism has made her mega-critical of herself.

No, ‘Many Heavens Above the Seventh’ is not a pleasant family film. With a (too) large role for chance. When Jos tries to process his grief with the help of compelling music, that is of course exactly the moment when Jeanne comes home from an errand. When Jos wants to make a (somewhat soapy) confession to his dying brother, that’s exactly the point when the family comes in.

The portrayal of Eva’s misery is flawless, with Brit van Hoof as a great interpreter. Eva is the kind of woman that you rarely see in movies, because this type makes as much service as possible in everyday life. That does not make the suffering any less great, which we experience on Jeanne’s birthday, for example. We would prefer to crawl under the table with Eva there.

The music is always appropriate, the dialogues are fine (but sometimes too subservient to the story), the actors are top notch, and the film jumps smoothly from one character to the next. This film adaptation of Griet op de Beeck’s debut novel is therefore not a pleasant viewing experience. Watching is sometimes even unbearable, but that is exactly the power of this film about unbearable suffering.