Week 42/2025

Film Fest Gent continues this week until Sunday. Don’t miss our selection from the programme, featuring new films by Aleksandre Koberidze, Sergei Loznitsa, Bi Gan, Lucrecia Martel, and Kelly Reichardt.

Yves Boisset (1939–2025), who died last March, was seen by some as France’s most censored filmmaker, and by others as a provocateur who embraced his outsider status. He left behind an impressive body of work of around fifty films, directing major actors such as Michel Bouquet, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Miou-Miou. His films, deeply rooted in political awareness, tackled issues from the Algerian War to racism, police violence, and media critique. A fan of American genre films and Italian B-movies, he positioned himself outside both the Nouvelle Vague and classicism. Nova pays tribute with a cycle of his early, emblematic films.

On Tuesday, CINEMATEK and the film festival Dames draaien will screen four films by Italian filmmaker Cecilia Mangini (1927–2021). Made between 1960–67, the films showcase her collaborations with Pier Paolo Pasolini, her focus on marginalized youth, and her documentation of southern Italy’s disappearing rituals. Shaped by neorealism, Mangini’s quietly confrontational documentaries blend poetic and political perspectives, addressing social struggles and the lives of Italy’s disenfranchised. Earlier in 2023, Sabzian published a collection of texts on her work: ‘Cecilia Mangini. To Be a Documentary Filmmaker’.

Also at CINEMATEK, the Frans van de Staak retrospective continues this week with two screenings. On Sunday, Windschaduw will be shown. In a text previously published on Sabzian, Johan van der Keuken wrote about the film: “I cannot explain it, but at its strongest moments, Van de Staak is, for me, the filmmaker who comes closest to capturing the very essence of filmmaking.” On Wednesday, Het vertraagde vertrek screens, a close collaboration between Van de Staak and writer Jacq Vogelaar that evolved as a dialogue between filming and writing and grew into a collective process.