Fien Troch won Best Director Award for her film HOME @ Venice Film Festival tonight.
HOME portrays the struggle between two generations. Teenagers who explore a thin line between trust, friendship and loyalty and adults who seem alienated from their past younger selves. The clash can be more brutal than expected.
17-year-old Kevin, sentenced for violent behavior, is just let out of prison. To start anew, he moves in with his aunt and her family and begins an apprenticeship at her store. Quickly he adapts to his new home and gets along well with his cousin Sammy, in his last year of highschool. Through Sammy and his friends, Kevin meets John. Upon discovering John's unbearable situation with his mother, Kevin feels the urge to help his new friend. One evening fate intervenes and questions of betrayal, trust and loyalty start to direct their daily lives more then ever.
HOME, together with 17 other films was competing for the Orizzonti section which aims to represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema. This edition's international jury of the Orizzonti section was chaired by French director Robert Guédiguian and composed by US film critic and historian Jim Hoberman, Egyptian actress Nelly Karim, Italian actress Valentina Lodovini, Korean actress and director Moon So-ri, Spanish film critic and scholar Josè Maria (Chema) Prado, and Indian director Chaitanya Tamhane.
"In Home, I want to explore the field of tension between two generations. How do adults go about their responsibilities towards teenagers and how do these young people try to find their way into adulthood themselves. In this community of two struggling generations, I looked for a storyline that centers on the themes of parental love, freedom, loyalty, betrayal and violence." - Director, Fien Troch -
[Fien Troch on stage, receiving the award]
HOME already received a lot of enthusiasm form the press in Venice :
Troch handles this complex material with assurance and secures convincing performances from her entire cast with stand-out work from Sebastian Van Dun who invites comparisons with James Dean or the young Sean Penn as the deceptively self-effacing Kevin. SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
Troch has coaxed fine, wholly unaffected work from her spiky, largely untested young ensemble, many of them first-timers, with Guidotti particularly heart-rending as the tormented, critically unsupported John. VARIETY
[left to right: Nico Leunen & Fien Troch]
Original soundtrack is from Johnny Jewel who worked on Drive and Lost River among others.
After it's World Premiere in Venice, HOME will continue its international journey to Toronto Film Festival where it will be screened on Tuesday in the Platform section.
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HOME
a film by Fien Troch (Belgium)
with Sebastian Van Dun, Mistral Guidotti, Loïc Batog, Lena Suijkerbuijk,
Karlijn Sileghem, Els Deceukelier, Robbie Cleiren
World Premiere - Orizzonti
Dutch with English subtitles - 103 min. - color
SYNOPSIS
17-year-old Kevin, sentenced for violent behavior, is just let out of prison. To start anew, he moves in with his aunt and her family and begins an apprenticeship at her store. Quickly he adapts to his new home and gets along well with his cousin Sammy, in his last year of highschool. Through Sammy and his friends, Kevin meets John. Upon discovering John's unbearable situation with his mother, Kevin feels the urge to help his new friend. One evening fate intervenes and questions of betrayal, trust and loyalty start to direct their daily lives more then ever.
