EXCLUSIVE: Belgian director Anke Blondé’s drama Dust world premieres in competition at the Berlin Film Festival in February and Deadline can reveal the first trailer.
Jan Hammenecker and Arieh Worthalter star as Belgian tech visionaries Luc and Geert, who learn that the long-running fraud underpinning their public success will hit the papers in less than 24 hours, causing their company and status to evaporate.
Staring jail time in the face, they go their separate paths of redemption. As they quietly seek atonement from their investors and their families they are forced to take on board what truly matters in life.
Dust is Blondé’s second feature after The Best of Dorien B., about a woman whose outwardly perfect life starts to fray at the seams when she learns of her mother’s affair while also harboring suspicions about husband’s close connection with a female colleague.
Prior to that she made short films Mister Frits, Buiten Adem and Dura and also worked as casting editor on films such as Felix van Groeningen’s The Misfortunates and The Broken Circle Breakdown.
The drama is lead produced by Dries Phlypo (The Wolf, the Fox and the Leopard, Reedland) under the banner of his Ghent-based company A Private View in coproduction with Giorgos Karnavos for Greece’s Heretic; James Watson and Mikko Makela for UK and Finland-based Betes Sauvages, and Joanna Szymanska and Krystyna Kantor for Poland’s Shipsboy.
Angelo Tijssens, who wrote the screenplay with other credits including Lukas Dhont’s Girl, takes an executive producer credit, alongside Level K CEO Tine Klint and Rich Simpson at London-based Hijack Capital.
Further backers include Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), Screen Flanders, Casa Kafa Pictures, Eurimages, Creative Europe Media, Polish Film Institute, Timeless Studio, Hellenic Film & Audiovisual Center – Creative Greece, BFI Global Screen Fund.
Level K is handling international sales and Kinepolis Film Distribution will release the film on February 25 in Belgium.