Trained in documentary, the Belgian filmmaker Caroline Strubbe relies on the keen observation of concrete detail, rather than conventional means of dialogue-driven exposition, to advance the enigmatic narratives of the two fiction features she has created to date—the first two panels of a planned trilogy on emotional and physical dislocation in the new, "borderless" Europe. Although the first two installments tell a story in chronological order, the strength of Strubbe's observational technique is such that they need not be seen sequentially: each image seems to bristle with implied backstories and possible lines of action departing from the central narrative. The result is work that is at once pressingly real and alluringly enigmatic. 

Lost Persons Area – Caroline Strubbe

2009. Belgium/Netherlands/Hungary/Germany. Written and directed by Caroline Strubbe. Strubbe’s debut feature premiered in the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes, where it won the SACD Screenwriting Award. The title is a reference to an Elliott Erwitt photograph of anxious women waiting in a Pasadena parking lot, although Strubbe’s displaced persons—a construction foreman (Sam Louwyck), his unhappy wife (Lisbeth Gruwez) and their silent, eerily independent seven year old daughter (Kimke Desart)—live in a sunny, vacant landscape beneath a high tension power line. Into this literally charged environment comes a Hungarian worker (Zoltán Miklós Hajdu) whose presence leads to tragedy. 109 min.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014, 4:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (Introduced by Caroline Strubbe)
Thursday, July 3, 2014, 7:30 p.m., Theater 3, mezzanine, Education and Research Building
Friday, July 4, 2014, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Saturday, July 5, 2014, 7:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Sunday, July 6, 2014, 2:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Monday, July 7, 2014, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Tuesday, July 8, 2014, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

I'm the Same, I'm an Other - Caroline Strubbe

2013. Belgium/Netherlands/Hungary. Written and directed by Caroline Strubbe. With Zoltán Miklós Hajdu and Kimke Desart. A young man and a little girl—their relationship intense but unclear—make their way from the Flemish coast to a deserted, out of season English coastal resort in the second part of Strubbe’s trilogy-in-progress. The brightness and agitation of the first installment here give way to a contemplative stillness, as the two characters, bound by events neither can speak of, search for ways to re-enter the world of the living. 103 min.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014, 8:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (Introduced by Caroline Strubbe)
Thursday, July 3, 2014, 4:30 p.m., Theater 3, mezzanine, Education and Research Building
Friday, July 4, 2014, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Saturday, July 5, 2014, 5:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Sunday, July 6, 2014, 5:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Monday, July 7, 2014, 4:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Tuesday, July 8, 2014, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

Flanders House New York is giving away 3x2 tickets for both screenings of Lost Persons Area and I'm the Same, I'm an Other on Wednesday, July 2. To enter a chance to win these tickets, send a message to mieke@flandershouse.org with your film selection as well as your and your guest's full names (first come, first served).