Nicole Goesseringer Muj

Fifteen-year-old Belgian filmmaker/actress Ivana Noa will present her new short horror film “Fictional Character” as an official selection of the CineYouth Festival. The festival showcases short films by directors ages 6-22 from around the world. CineYouth is held in Chicago from April 20-22, 2018 and is part of the Chicago International Film Festival. https://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/cineyouth/

An established named in the youth film world, the award-winning Noa is best known for her film “Feeling to Dive and Other Stories,” as well as playing the role of the young Juliet in Toneelhuis' stage play ‘Romeo and Juliet.”  In 2015, she made her second short “Unofficial: Judo.”  She also completed two documentaries “Actress” and “Interview with a Director,” in which Noa explores different expressive elements - original poetry and conceptual art together with direct interview techniques and insert close-ups. “Interview with a Director” premiered at the Short Film Corner at Cannes Film Festival, making Noa the youngest filmmaker to ever to have screened at the festival. “Fictional Characters” marks her seventh short film.

In the film, Hans is just starting to discover the world. Gretel is a teen, feeling infuriated to everything. The mother is as she always has been. The father is too weak to change. Everybody is in love with the witch, searching for their “virtual I” and trigger for transformation. Almost as a documentary of how they felt then, or how would they feel today. Modern society might be few centuries later and few social platforms ahead. Though, did people really change? Who is the bad guy in the story? Isn’t the witch actually the one that makes them different and provokes them to take the next step in their understanding of the “self”? And being free? How does the trivia of the bad provoke the gradual development of every family across the globe? Can a family be gender fluid? What is a gender? Is it important?

The film also features Veerle Eyckermans, one of Belgian’s most renowned actresses in the role of the mother, as well as actors Dirk De Lathauwer, Ellen Sterckx, and Willem Herbots. Heleen Declerq serves as director of photography and Olympe Tits, who plays the Witch in the film, is the film’s choreographer. The film’s original soundtrack is by PJ Seaux.

Noa comments, “This is a young and dynamic team, built of strong, creative personalities with a sense for art since early age. There is no legacy they carry as none are coming from families with art history. All are pure born talent, unmodified and unsteered by stereotypes.” 

“Fictional Characters” will have its world premiere on Sunday, April 22, 2018 at 1:30 PM as part of CineYouth’s World View.