Principal photography on ‘My Dad is a Sausage‘, Anouk Fortunier’s (‘Drôle D’Oiseau’) long-awaited feature film debut, has started on Monday 5 August. The story takes place almost entirely in Ghent and follows Zoë, a young teenager who supports her father’s sudden and inexplicable decision to quit his job as a banker and become an actor. Johan Heldenbergh, well-known for his breakthrough performance in ‘The Broken Circle Breakdown’, plays the father who is struggling with a burn-out.
Savannah Vandendriessche (‘Rosie and Moussa’) plays Zoë and Hilde De Baerdemaeker (’13 Geboden’, ‘Coppers’, ‘LouisLouise’, ‘Halleluja!’) is cast as her globetrotting CEO Mum. Other talent attached to the project are: Frank Focketyn (‘Tytgat Chocolat’, ‘Het Eiland’, ‘In de Gloria’), Chokri Ben Chikha, Camille Blereau (‘Paulien en Paulette’, ‘Lili en Marleen’), Serge-Henri Valcke (‘De Dag’, ‘No Man’s Land’, ‘In de Vlaamsche Pot’), Jade De Ridder, Eva van der Gucht, Ferre Vuye and Robbe Van Den Ven.
Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem wrote the screenplay. Sara De Vries-Vinck and Abel Bos took care of the casting. Harry de Wit will compose the original music. Melle Van Essen (NSC) is director of photography, Joppe Van den brande will edit the film, Kriss Dewitte is set photographer and Dirk Bombey is sound engineer on set. Philippe Bertin is the art director, Valérie Leroy is costume designer and Michelle Beeckman is key makeup artist. ‘My Dad is a Sausage’ is produced by Dries Phlypo for A Private View and distributed by Paradiso Filmed Entertainment. Filming for ‘My Dad is a Sausage’ started on August 5th and will continue until mid September.
“Anouk convinced me immediately as a director”, says Johan Heldenbergh, “I fell in love with her short film that touched me thanks to its original storytelling and the wackiness of its characters… I thought it was refreshing. Anouk and I are very similar: she feels a need to tell a story and has a relentless energy to make a scene come alive and knows exactly what she wants. I am also working again with the writer and producers of ‘Moscow Belgium’, which was an incredibly satisfying collaboration. Principal photography has started and I’m very excited!”
Johan Heldenbergh was featured earlier in his career in the A Private View produced film ‘Moscow Belgium’. This will be his first main role in a Flemish film since ‘The Broken Circle Breakdown’, which he headlined with Veerle Baetens. He also appeared in the productions ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’, ‘The Hummingbird Project’, ‘The Confessions’ and ‘Through The Air’. He will soon appear in the Flemish TV-series ‘De Twaalf’.
Anouk Fortunier was hailed as a promising new director thanks to her short ‘Drôle d’Oiseau’, which was selected to numerous international film festivals. She won the Audience Award at Film Fest Gent and the Wildcard at the Short Film Festival Leuven amongst others. She also worked as a production assistant on features as ‘Le Tout Nouveau Testament’ by Jaco Van Dormael and she was children’s coach for Gilles Couliers’ ‘Cargo’ and Sahim Omar Kalifa’s ‘Zagros’. ‘My Dad is a Sausage’ is her feature film debut.
“The adventure has started! Surrounded by an amazing cast and crew I can’t wait to bring this story to life. The role of Dad is made for Johan Heldenbergh. The character he embodies dares to break free, skirts the borders of lunacy, but he’s also very lovable. The other actors fit perfectly within the ensemble of the quirky Schutijzer family. It will be a layered film, filled with humour, for everyone who has an out-of-the-ordinary family”. – Anouk Fortunier, director
‘My Dad is a Sausage’ is a production between A PRIVATE VIEW in coproduction with THE FILM KITCHEN (NL) and LEITWOLF FILMPRODUKTION (DE) and with the support of the FLANDERS AUDIOVISUAL FUND (VAF), EURIMAGES, THE NETHERLANDS FILMFUND and THE NETHERLANDS FILM PRODUCTION INCENTIVE, NDR, TELENET STAP, CASA CAFKA PICTURES , THE TAX SHELTER INCENTIVE of THE BELGIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, NORD MEDIA, PARADISO FILMED ENTERTAINMENT, MEDIA CREATIVE EUROPE, KETNET, VPRO and FARB FILM. PARADISO FILMED ENTERTAINMENT will release the film in 2020 in Belgian theatres.