"Ne me quitte pas", a true Belgian story

While Belgium is still culturally divided in the common opinion, a moving and absurd documentary tells the story of a Flemish guy and a Walloon guy who are best friends forever... The film is seeking international recognition, as it was nominated at the Tribeca Film Festival and the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA).

Dutch film makers Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Niels van Koevorden collaborated on a bilingual film (in French and Dutch), Ne me quitte pas "Don't leave me", whose action takes place in Belgium. The genre is a mixture of humour and tragedy, but the story is non-fictive and genuinely moving. It is not told in a cliché, voyeurist way though.


The plot is the following: In a small village situated in a remote unpopulated place full of forests, farmers Bob, a retired Flemish who always smokes cigars lives a long-lasting friendship with Marcel, a younger Walloon guy, whose wife leaves him and tries to take their three kids with her. This is the story of failure, depression and alcoholism. The two friends want so much to help each other that they even discuss the best ways to commit suicide...

The title of the film echoes to Jacques Brel's (legend of Belgian chansons) sad song "Ne me quitte pas", which backgrounds a part of the story, while not a lot of music is used in this film to make it look less "artifically dramatic". Will this purely Belgian story touch international hearts?...

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