Les convoyeurs attendent (1999)

A bizarre melange of social realism and surrealist black comedy, Les Convoyeurs attendent paints a dark, funny, yet strangely moving portrait of the relationship between a father and his two children. Beautifully filmed in wistful black and white, it is the first full-length film from Belgian director Benoît Mariage and features well-known Belgian actor Benoît Poelvoorde. Poelvoorde has acquired something of a reputation for playing dark, manic characters, most famously the psychopath documentary-maker in the shocking black comedy C’est arrivé près de chez vous (1992). In Les Convoyeurs attendent , Poelvoorde gives a brilliant portrayal of a middle-aged man who has difficulty reconciling his parental love for his children with an uncontrollable aggressive streak which stems from a lack of self-esteem and his experiences as a journalist.

Killingly funny in places, with some magnificently restrained comic situations, Les Convoyeurs attendent is also a hugely poignant film. What is perhaps most striking is the way it manages to draw its audience into the worlds of the main characters in the film – first Roger, then his small daughter, then his solitary neighbour Félix (who has only his pigeons for company) and then his teenage son. Repeatedly, Benoît Mariage demonstrates that a carefully constructed scene, suitably photographed makes dialogue superfluous. It is these moments of awkward silence which provide the film’s most memorable moments and give it a profoundly engaging sense of humanity – albeit from an amusingly skew-whiff perspective. Filmsdefrance