The Misfortunates

Thirteen-year-old Gunther lives at his grandmother's house in a Belgian town, along with his father and three uncles. All four drink, none of them works and they are all in debt. They have become a local legend; the last time, one of them won a bicycle race doing a lap with a beer. Gunther grows up in this house and wants one day to be a writer. The subject is not alcoholism but not becoming one of these men. Gunther loves his father and wants to escape him; the film finds both legitimate and does not make the choice easy. The form runs in two times: childhood and Gunther as an adult years later. The colours are warm in the past and cold in the present. The town scenes were shot in real locations with local performers. The source is Dimitri Verhulst's semi-autobiographical novel. Felix van Groeningen shot it in his own region and left room for improvisation so as not to break the tone of the family. It screened in Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 2009 and took a prize there; in Belgium it was among the most discussed films of its year. Kenneth Vanbaeden plays Gunther and Koen De Graeve his father. Who it is for: viewers who like hard European family drama and autobiographical storytelling. Who it is not for: anyone troubled by scenes of drink and humiliation; the film presents them as comedy and the discomfort is intended.