ANTW ERP CENTRAL (Antwerpen Centraal)

PRESS-KIT

Contact: Sophim ages - Jan Roekens T +32 2 2230479 - sophim [email protected]

www.antwerpcentral.be

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English) ANTW ERP CENTRAL (Antwerpen Centraal)

A documentary by Peter Krüger

93’ - HD - Colour - 16/9 - stereo & 5.1

SYNOPSIS

ANTW ERP CENTRAL takes the viewer on a journey through the physical and m ental space of ’s railway cathedral, from its construction to the present day. The film covers three centuries of Belgian railway history: from the m om ent that the national railway com pany laid its first tracks to the developm ent of the high-speed rail link in the 21st century. Echoes of ’s colonial past and the location of the station in the centre of the bustling diam ond district and next to the city zoo add a surreal touch as contrasting pairs, such as anim al and hum an, nature and industry, baroque and m odernity, dilapidation and renovation are com plexly juxtaposed. Drawing inspiration from the book “Austerlitz” by W .G . Sebald, screenwriter/director Peter Krüger approaches Antwerp Central Railway Station as a m agical realistic location where present and past, history and daily life, fiction and reality are in constant flux. Running as a thread through the film are the dream s and rem iniscences of a traveler, played by Johan Leysen, who arrives at Antwerp Central and through whose eyes we observe the station. He draws our attention not only to the striking architecture and historical context of the building, but also to its hidden and m ysterious aspects. A peacock spreads its wings; tim e stands still; a lion roam s the grand waiting hall; an old steam loc enters the station; a choir perform s on the m onum ental staircase leading to the platform s… Reality turns to dream and vice versa. But what is reality? And what is dream ? Is tim e not m ore than the transform ation of space?

STATEM ENT

The Central Station in Antwerp, by the city’s inhabitants often called “The Railway Cathedral”, is not just a railway station. It is the term inal station of Belgium ’s oldest railway and has an architectural grandeur that is unlike any other railway station in Belgium or . The baroque entrance hall with its m onum ental staircase has both a theatrical and surrealistic quality as if it serves as the background of an opera. Striking, but by no m eans coincidental, is that the station is flanked on the left by the Zoo, and on the right by the Jewish quarter – the diam ond district, som ewhat ironically called “the Jerusalem of the North”. This conjures up sinister m em ories of the Second W orld W ar when countless Jews were deported from Antwerp… It seem s that the m onum ental station hides m ore dark sides of its own. Thinking of King Leopold II who is om nipresent in this railway cathedral, the spirits of the exploited Congolese loom from the past… Today, the station has been undergoing a true renaissance: it has been renovated,

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English) connected with the European network of High Speed Trains, and adapted to the needs of the 21st century. It becam e a new public space where m ore is happening then taking a train. That is why I approach the station as a m agical-realistic place where opposite elem ents blend and confront each other, a world in which ghosts from the past appear, where anim als from the Zoo roam about at night and where visual and aural observation of the present sparks off historic, hum oristic and poetic contem plation, a cinem atographic evocation on the experience of tim e and the transform ation of space.

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English) PRESENTATION BY THE AUTHOR

ANTW ERP CENTRAL is a film in which visual observations occasion historical, hum oristic and poetic reflections on Antwerp’s railway cathedral. Out of the archives em erges a narrator. He takes us along particular places and characters at and around the station. His narration, full of associations and rem iniscences triggered by what he sees and thinks, will constitute a penetrating and stylish portrait that reveals som e of the absurd aspects of the nature of the country that is called Belgium . The film will unfold a kaleidoscopic im age of the station’s m ental and physical universe on three cinem atic levels connected through association: a historic level, a realistic level and a poetic-m ythic level. Throughout the narration, the film will continuously m ove back and forth between these three dim ensions. The historic dim ension It is obvious that the history of this railway station is interesting and revealing, not only because it was created by King Leopold II, but also because the building is located between the Zoo on one side, and the Jewish quarter on the other. The film will pass through three centuries of Belgian history, from the earliest days of railways in Belgium , when the station was yet to be built, until the recent creation and construction of the HST term inal in the sam e building. The realistic dim ension As the history unfolds, we m eet a series of colourful characters who work at the station and who run it every day. They will tell us about the station’s day-to-day functioning, including railway traffic supervision, the cleaners, security, the electricians and the restroom attendants. At the sam e tim e we will be allowed a glim pse into their hidden passions, dream s and perceptions. The poetic-m ythic dim ension The m ain character, perform ed by actor Johan Leysen, steps out of G erm an writer W .G . Sebald’s book Austerlitz and guides us into the film ’s poetic-m ythic dim ension. Johan is, in fact, the only fictional character in the film . In showing what is often invisible, he incarnates the film m aker’s view. In the film , Johan will be the stranger/observer who arrives at the station and who will assim ilate the room with his own em otions, perception and thoughts. His m em ories and thoughts will, as it were, colour his view on what we see in the present. This approach gives the film a surrealistic and poetic dim ension, as we will see the station’s history and characters through his “coloured” gaze. He is a narrator, but also a dream er who gives his im agination free rein on occasions, taking us into the station’s world of dream s and fantasy beyond reality. As a portrait of Antwerp’s central railway station, ANTW ERP CENTRAL is docum entary in its historic, and creative in its poetic and surrealistic approach. Peter Krüger

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English)

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English) W RITER / DIRECTOR PETER KRÜGER

Peter Krüger (°1970, Ghent) is active as a writer, director and producer. He obtained an MA in Philosophy at the University of Leuven in 1993 and has com pleted courses of the MEDIA Program m e (such as script writing and producing) and m aster classes in actors’ direction, cinem atography and opera-direction. In 1993 Peter co-founded Inti Film s (www.intifilm s.com ), an independent production com pany which focuses on the production of creative docum entaries and director’s film s with a trans-national relevance and for an international m arket (cf. www.intifilm s.com ). One of his m ost rem arkable recent productions is ‘Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty’ by Renzo Martens. As a director Peter m akes docum entaries, theatre and fiction. Som e of his work includes a.o. ‘Nazareth’, ‘Poets of Mongolia’, ‘The Eclypse of Saint-Gillis’, ‘Roberte’s Dance’, the short film ‘The Strange Man’ and the theatre production ‘N’ (Toneelhuis). In all his film s Peter m ingles fiction and docum entary. His im ages and sounds m ake us wonder about the m ysteries of our existence. Currently Peter is realizing a feature docum entary called ‘N’, set in W est-Africa and preparing his first feature film , called ‘Continental Drift’. Peter has been teaching docum entary at the film school RITS () and has conducted guest sem inars on film direction and production. He also works as a script consultant for feature film s, such as the award-winning film s ‘Khadak’ and ‘Altiplano’. Since 3 years Peter is also active as a m em ber of the selection com m ission & the general assem bly of the Flem ish Film Fund VAF. The working relationship between the DOP Rim vydas Leipus started with the production of Peter’s first short film ‘The Strange Man’ in 2004. Rim vydas has also been working with Peter during the shooting in Ivory Coast for the theatre production of ‘N’ (2006). The working relationship with the COMPO SER W alter Hus dated from the theatre production ‘N’ (2006). W alter com posed the m usic and played on stage together Dirk van Dijck and Angelique W ilkie. All info: www.intifilm s.com

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English) KEY-CREW

Johan Leysen, actor

Johan Leysen began his career in the theatre in the (De Appel, RO- Theater, Baal), and then soon started appearing in productions in a variety of European cities and in a variety of languages: Brussels (Rosas, Kaaitheater, Needcom pany, TNB, Kunstenfestival des Arts), Frankfurt (TAT), Berlin (Hebbel),Paris (Chaillot, Bouffes du Nord, La Tem pête), Avignon, Lissbon (Acarte festival), Modena, Luxem burg, Lyon (TNP) with directors such as Erik Vos, Franz Marijnen, Leonard Frank, Anne Teresa de Keersm aeker, Jan Lauwers, Jan Ritsem a, Hans Peter Cloos, Philippe Calvario, Frank Hoffm ann, Johan Sim ons, Christian Schiaretti , Isabelle Ronayette, Rom ain Bonnin, Guy Cassiers, Daniel Jeanneteau, a.o. He was involved with a num ber of m usic projects, working with am ong others, Louis Andriessen (Georges Sand), Heiner G oebbels (Die W iederholung), Riccardo Chailly (Oedipus Rex), Pierre Audi (Rêves d’un Marco Polo, Claude Vivier, W agner Dream , Jonathan Harvey/Jean Claude Carrière), Maurizio Kagel (Prise d’otages), John Elliot Gardiner (Eleonore), Peter Eötvös, Reinbert de Leeuw, Thierry Fischer, Michael Jarrel and others, with orchestras such as Ensem ble Modern, ASKO , Schönberg Ensem ble, Concertgebouworkest, Orchestre révolutionnaire, London Sym fionetta, Ensem ble Intercontem porain, Ictus... W orking with Jean Luc Godard on “Je Vous salue, Marie” sparked his interest in film and he now tries to alternate stage and film projects. In France he worked with Raul Ruiz (“Les âm es fortes”), Enki Bilal (“Tykho Moon”), Jacques Doillon (“Germ aine et Benjam in”), Patrice Chéreau (“La Reine Margot”), Olivier Jahan (“Faites com m e si je n’étais pas là”), Sylvie Verheyde (“Princesses”), Jean Louis Milesi (“Nag la Bom be”), Christophe Gans (“Le Pacte des Loups”), Valeria Sarm iento (“l’Inconnu de Strassbourg”), Didier Martiny (“Le Pique-nique de Lulu Kreuz”), Jean Pierre Lim osin (“Carm en”) Alain Raoust (“Eté indien”), Philippe Ram os (“Jeanne d'Arc”) and others. For his work on Radu Mihaeleanu’s “Trahir”, a french-rum anian co-production, he won the best actor award at the 1994 Montreal film festival, and at the European Film festival, Viareggio. W ork in the UK included Ferdinand Fairfax’s “True Blue” and Karoly Makk’s “The Gam bler”. In Italy, “Colpo di Luna” by Alberto Sim one, and “Gli occhi dell’altro” by Gianpaolo Tescari (Taorm ina Film fest 2005), in Germ any Robert Schwentkes’s ”Tattoo”, Dito Tsinzatse’s ”Schussangst” and for Focus (US), he worked on Anton Corbijn's "The Am erican" In Belgium , André Delvaux’s ”L’œ uvre au noir”, Marion Hänsel’s “”, ’s “Sailors don’t cry”, Gérard Corbiaux’s “Le Maître de Musique”, “Le Roi Danse”, Stijn Coninx’s “Daens” (Oscar nom inated), ’s ”Een Ander Zijn G eluk”, Miel van Hoogenbem t’s “Miss Montigny” and Peter Krüger’s “Antwerp Central”. In the Netherlands, he worked with several directors on a variety of projects: Danniel Daninel (“Ei, Viaduc”), Rita Horst (“Rom eo”), Digna Synke (“Boven de Bergen”), Pieter Verhoeff (“De Langste Reis”), Harry Küm el (“Eline Vere”), Ger Poppelaars (“Missing Link”), Leon de W inter (“De Grens”), Nora Hoppe (“Crossings”), Monique van de Ven

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English) (“Zom erhitte”) and others. He won ‘best actor award’ at the 1998 Dutch Film Festival for Peter Delpeut’s “Felice, Felice”.. Notable television com m itm ents in the Netherlands, Belgium , France and Germ any have included Josée Dayan’s “Tourbillons”, Marc Didden’s “Bolleken”, Boris Pavel Konen’s “De 9 Dagen van de Gier”, Danniel Danniel’s “Tralievader”, Johan Tim m ers’s “Stuntnacht” , Mark Schlichter’s “Muttertag”, Hans Noever’s “Verrat”, Jean Daniel Verhaeghe’s “Je voudrais descendre”, Vincent Martonara’s “La Dérive des Continents, Van Passel/Matthijs’s “De Keyser van de Sm aak”

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English) Rimvydas Leipus, director of photography

Rim vydas Leipus (Vilnius, 1960) trained as a cinem atographer at the Russian Film Institute VGIK from which he received his degree in Direction of Photography and Cam era in 1992. He has since shot num erous fiction and docum entary film s, which have screened at the Venice, Cannes and Berlin festivals. His m ost notable partnership was with Lithuanian director Sharunas Bartas on the highly acclaim ed film s ‘THE HOUSE, ‘THE CORRIDOR and ‘FREEDOM’. He has received m any awards, including the Prize for Best Photography in the CEI and Baltic States for the film ‘The Courtyard’ by Valdas Navasaitis in 1999, as well as the Prize of the Lithuanian Film m aker’s Union. Rim vydas Leipus was born Septem ber 9, 1960 in Salininkai, a sm all village near Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania. His love for photography, he inherited from his father, a well-known handym an in the region. After secondary school, he studied electricity engineering at the Kaunas University of Technology (1978-1979). He then served in the Soviet Arm y (1979-1981) and after that studied trade econom y at the Vilnius University (1981-1984). His film career was launched in 1984, when he started to work as cam era assistant in the TV-Film departm ent of the Lithuanian National TV and Radio. During his studies (1986-1992) at the VGIK (Russian State Institute of Cinem atography) he shot his first short docum entary as cinem atographer: "Atverti duris ateinanciam " (1989, dir. Audrius Stonys). Since then he has collaborated with directors Arunas Matelis (“TEN MINUTES BEFORE FLIGHT O F ICARUS”, 1990), Sharunas Bartas (“THE CO RRIDOR”, 1994; “THE HOUSE”, 1997; “FREEDOM”, 2000), Valdas Navasaitis (“THE CO URTYARD”, 1999) and m any others. He has shot num erous feature and docum entary film s, which have been screened at the Venice, Cannes and Berlin festivals. His work was awarded for Best Photography in the CEI and Baltic States Film Festival (Anapa, Russia) for “THE COURTYARD” (1999), Prize of the Lithuanian Film m akers Union for “FO URW lNGER”, “THE CO URTYARD” and “9 G ATES CITY” (1999), he has aslo been nom inated for “G OLDEN FRO G” award in CAMERIMAGE-97 for “THE HOUSE”. His last film “KHADAK”, directed by Peter Brosens and Jessica W oodworth, was awarded in the 63rd Venice Film Festival with the Luigi De Laurentiis Prize “Lion of the feature”. www.rim vydasleipus.com

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English) W alter Hus , composer

W alter Hus is com poser, pianist and im provisator. Toured the international scenes in the eighties with the group Maxim alist!, that created the soundtrack to a num berof theatre- and dance productions then acquiring international recognition (De Keersm aeker, Vandekeybus, Needcom pany...). After his Maxim alist! years Hus received a continuous flow of writing com m issions and thus com posed an im pressive oeuvre am ongst which four operas, a children's opera, five string quartets, a series of twenty- four preludes and fugues am ongst others as well as m usic for theater, dance and film (Deruddere, Greenaway..) In recent years Hus gradually enlarged his horizon while exploring the creative potential of the new com puter-controlled autom atic Decap organs in spatial installations, with his rock group "rawsonic" and in scientifically oriented projects. W ith MAROLLENO PERADESMARO LLES he creates an ongoing experim ental opera- project together with a group of am ateur singers from the poor Brussels Marollen quarter. www.walterhus.org

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English) CREDITS

Script & direction Peter Krüger Text inspired by ‘Austerlitz’ by W .G . Sebald Traveler Johan Leysen Little girl Thessa Krüger Director of Photography Rim vydas Leipus Sound Matthias van Gasse Editing Els Voorspoels, Nico Leunen Music W alter Hus Sound design Charo Calvo, Stephan Dunkelm an Mixing Jean-Jacques Quinet Colour grading Peter Bernaerts Research Peter Krüger, Ghislaine Peeters, Philip Albert Schrooten After an idea of Jacques Laurent Executive producer Jan Roekens Production m anager Ab van Overbeke Assistants figuration Lenny Van W esem ael, Eva Cools, Sean Goossens, Inne Schilder, René Verm eulen, Marco Vander Veken, Max Roekens First cam era assistant Fabien Ruyssen Steadycam Renaat Lam beets, Olivier Merckx Extra cam erawork Bjorn Charpentier, Joris Rym en Extra cam era assistant Sacha Caloussis Extra sound Bart Maes, Luc Cuveele Light Laurens Degrande, Correntin Kopp Grip Laurens De Geyter RED data transfer Rinus Dewilde, François Nicolas, Carine Cannière RED Consultant Philippe Van Doorne W ardrobe consultant Isabelle Lhoas, Xenia Vanderlinden Painting hand Ben Vanechelpoel Owl Marc Ardanwen Peacock Roger Parr / Academ ic Anim als Lion Diane Antoine & Heiko Ulf Dog Jana Moyson Choir Arti Vocali Jewish Singers Benjam in & Israel Müller Special effects Benoit Delval Editing assistants Frederic Dupont, Diana Dolce Foley Marie-Jeanne W yckm ans Legal consultant Herm an Croux / MVVP Accountancy Jan Rim baut Translations Dhaxley Translations, W alter Provo - Tekst en uitleg

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English) W ebsite Ophelia van Cam penhout

PRODUCTION Delegate producer Jan Roekens for Sophim ages

Developed with the support of MEDIA program m e of the Europese Com m ission

Produced with the support of Flem ish Audiovisual Fund (Vlaam s Audiovisueel Fonds) Eurostation and the Taxshelter of Belgian federal Governm ent Nationale Loterij

In coproduction with R.T.B.F. - secteur Docum entaires

In collaboration with Canvas RSI

PRODUCER Sophim ages, active since 1995 and located in Brussels, worked with renowned directors as Peter W oditsch, Jean-Pierre Am éris, Thierry De Mey, Rob Rom bout, Stijn Coninx, Hilde Van Mieghem , Peter Krüger… and produced internationally awarded feature film s (‘Hey Stranger’, ‘Les Aveux de l’innocent’, ‘Rosas danst Rosas’, ‘Fase’, ‘Verder dan de m aan’ (Belgian entry for the Oscars), ‘De Kus’, ‘Marieke, Marieke’… ), internationally distributed and awarded docum entaries (‘Visitors of the night’, ‘The Lost Secret of Catherine the Great’, ‘QM2, Birth of a Legend’, ‘Secret Museum s’, ‘Towards the last shore’, ‘Stam m ers’… ) and m any internationally acclaim ed short film s. Sophim ages’ m ost recent production is the feature docum entary ‘Antwerp Central’ by Peter Krüger and the feature film ‘Marieke, Marieke’ by Sophie Schoukens.

CONTACT Sophim ages - Jan Roekens, producer Varkensm arkt 30 B - 1000 Brussels, Belgium T + 32 2 223 0479 M + 32 497 83 84 88

sophim ages@ skynet.be www.sophim ages.be www.antwerpcentral.be

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English) TECHNICAL

Length: 93’ (52’ will be m ade available later) Im age: color (B/W archive m aterial) Shooting support: RED Sound: stereo and 5.1 Available on: HDCAM Distribution form at: Blu Ray (HD 1080) and DVD (16/9) Original language: Dutch Subtitles English (French will be m ade available later)

www.antwerpcentral.be

Antwerp Central - PRESS-KIT (English)