Skip to content
1981
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Journal of European Popular Culture
  4. Volume 15, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 15, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2040-6134
  • E-ISSN: 2040-6142

Abstract

Pieter Van Hees’s (2014) situates Belgian national anxiety in the country’s White supremacist past and present, both of which milieux are shared by its language communities. The film suggests, perhaps in spite of itself, that the claim by Brussels to be a centre of power is ethnically, as well as ethically, problematic. It breaks a taboo in confronting Belgium’s colonial past, on the eve of the 150th anniversary of Leopold II’s accession (1865). Yet, it ultimately reproduces the economy of the racialized system it tries to critique, becoming particularly problematic from the point of view of Black women. The ineffability of spatial spectacle would betray the way in which its protagonist’s narrative is ‘mapped’ onto the space of Brussels, with the character’s breakdown – hence, a failed attempt at constructing his own narrative, at mapping his life in Brussels – bearing further unintentional testimony to the city’s abject history beneath it.

© 2024 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jepc_00065_1
2024-07-22
2024-12-07
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Anon. (2024), ‘Waste Land’, Film Fest Gent, https://shop.filmfestival.be/products/waste-land. Accessed 3 July 2024.
  2. Balthazar, N. and Poissonnier, P. (2010), ‘Être belge/Belg zijn’, Belgium: 7 Milliards d’Autres’, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kITFA5HUUQY. Accessed 25 January 2024.
  3. Barman, T. (2003), Any Way the Wind Blows, Belgium: Corridor.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Bate, P. (2003), White King, Red Rubber, Black Death, Belgium, UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Finland, Canada, Australia and Denmark: Périscope Productions.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Brogniez, L., Debroux, T. and Le Maire, J. (2017), ‘The rise of a small cultural capital: Brussels at the end of the nineteenth century’, in R. Hibbitt (ed.), Other Capitals of the Nineteenth Century: An Alternative Mapping of Literary and Cultural Space, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 129–57.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Brunsdon, C. (2010), ‘Towards a history of empty spaces’, in R. Koeck and L. Roberts (eds), The City and the Moving Image: Urban Projections, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 91–103.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Castro, T. (2010), ‘Mapping the city through film: From “topophilia” to urban mapscapes’, in R. Koeck and L. Roberts (eds), The City and the Moving Image: Urban Projections, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 144–55.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Ceuppens, B. (2006), ‘Allochthons, colonizers, and scroungers: Exclusionary populism in Belgium’, African Studies Review, 49:2, pp. 147–86.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Clette-Gakuba, V. (2016), ‘Mise-en-œuvre de la question postcoloniale en Belgique: Les artistes Joëlle Sambi, Pitcho Womba Konga, Mufuki Mukuna et Lisette Lombé’, in S. Demart and G. Abrassart (eds), Créer en postcolonie 2010–2015: Voix et dissidences Belgo-Congolaises, Bruxelles: Le Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles and Africalia, pp. 250–59.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Conrad, J. ([1899] 2006), ‘Heart of darkness’, in P. Armstrong (ed.), Heart of Darkness: A Norton Critical Edition, 4th ed., New York: Norton, pp. 3–77.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Custinne, M.-G. (2018), ‘Intermulticulturalité’, in J. Moninga (ed.), Les Femmes de la diaspora congolaise de Belgique s’expriment, Bruxelles: Plateforme des Femmes de la Diaspora Congolaise de Belgique, p. 70.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Danewid, I. (2017), ‘White innocence in the Black Mediterranean: Hospitality and the erasure of history’, Third World Quarterly, 38:7, pp. 1674–89.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Dardenne, J.-P. and Dardenne, L. (2005), L’Enfant, Belgium and France: Les Films du Fleuve and Archipel 35.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Dargis, M. (2016), ‘Sundance fights tide with films like The Birth of a Nation’, New York Times, 29 January, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/30/movies/sundance-fights-tide-with-films-like-the-birth-of-a-nation.html. Accessed 10 September 2021.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Debeuckelaere, H. (2016), ‘“Être traité comme une chose”: La Belgique et l’exotisme contemporain’, in S. Demart and G. Abrassart (eds), Créer en postcolonie 2010–2015: Voix et dissidences Belgo-Congolaises, Bruxelles: Le Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles and Africalia, pp. 186–90.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Demart, S. (2013), ‘Émeutes à Matonge et… indifférence des pouvoirs publics?’, Brussels Studies, 68, https://journals.openedition.org/brussels/1165. Accessed 10 September 2021.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Demart, S. (2016), ‘Introduction: Créer en postcolonie 2010–2015: Voix et dissidences belgo-congolaises’, in S. Demart and G. Abrassart (eds), Créer en postcolonie 2010–2015: Voix et dissidences Belgo-Congolaises, Bruxelles: Le Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles and Africalia, pp. 9–28.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Diawara, M. ([1988] 2009), ‘Black spectatorship: Problems of identification and resistance’, in L. Braudy and M. Cohen (eds), Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, 7th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 767–75.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Diekmann, A. and Maulet, G. (2009), ‘A contested ethnic tourism asset: The case of Matonge in Brussels’, Tourism, Culture & Communication, 9:1–2, pp. 93–105.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Druick, D. and Zegers, P. (1994), ‘In the public eye: 1879–1889’, in D. Druick (ed.), Odilon Redon: 1840–1916, New York: Thames & Hudson, pp. 119–74.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Duplat, G. (2017), ‘Pitcho plonge dans la face sombre du Congo belge’, La Libre, 10 November, https://www.lalibre.be/culture/scenes/2017/11/10/pitcho-plonge-dans-la-face-sombre-du-congo-belge-4MPGCI3MTBAJFD4VOWTWGW7AZE/. Accessed 25 January 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. El Arbi, A. and Fallah, B. (2015), Black, Belgium: Caviar Antwerp NV and A Team Productions.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Elsaesser, T. (2013), ‘ImpersoNations: National cinema, historical imaginaries and new cinema Europe’, Mise au Point, 5, https://doi.org/10.4000/map.1480.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Ferrara, A. (1992), Bad Lieutenant, USA: Bad Lt. Productions.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Gay, A. (2018), Ouvrir la voix, France: Bras de Fer.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Ghislain, N. (2015), ‘La statue de Léopold II vandalisée’, La Libre, 17 December, https://www.lalibre.be/regions/bruxelles/2015/12/17/la-statue-de-leopold-ii-vandalisee-742BJUICW JA27FOFLX344BK3LY/. Accessed 7 February 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Gossé, M. (2005), ‘Bruxelles, Anvers’, in T. Jousse and T. Paquot (eds), La Ville au cinéma: Encyclopédie, Paris: Cahiers du Cinéma, pp. 345–50.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Grégoire, N. and Ntambwe, M. (2019), ‘Afro women’s activism in Belgium: Questions of diversity and solidarity’, in A. Emejulu and F. Sobande (eds), To Exist Is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe, London: Pluto, pp. 63–76.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Groom, G. (1994), ‘The late work’, in D. Druick (ed.), Odilon Redon: 1840–1916, New York: Thames & Hudson Press, pp. 305–52.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Herzog, W. (2006), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, USA: Millennium Films, Pressman Film and Saturn Films.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Kirshner, I. (1980), Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, USA: Lucasfilm.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Kristeva, J. (1987), Soleil noir: Dépression et mélancolie, Paris: Éditions Gallimard.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Lacan, J. (1981), Le Séminaire: Livre III, Les Psychoses: 1955–56, Paris: Éditions Seuil.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Lanners, B. (2005), Ultranova, Belgium: Versus Production, Prime Time and Scope Invest.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Larson, B. (2005), The Dark Side of Nature: Science, Society, and the Fantastic in the Work of Odilon Redon, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Leeman, F. (2011), ‘Plante grasse’, in R. Rapetti (ed.), Odilon Redon: Prince du rêve: 1840–1916, Paris: RMN-Grand Palais, p. 152.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Mosley, P. (2001), Split Screen: Belgian Cinema and National Identity, Albany, NY: SUNY.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Mosley, P. ([2002] 2015), ‘Anxiety, memory, and place in Belgian cinema’, in J. Blankenship and T. Nagl (eds), European Visions: Small Cinemas in Transition, Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, pp. 115–28.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Redon, O. ([1881] 2011), ‘Untitled (later, Plante grasse/Cactus Man)’, in R. Rapetti (ed.), Odilon Redon: Prince du rêve: 1840–1916, Paris: RMN-Grand Palais, p. 153.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Roskam, M. (2011), Rundskop, Belgium: Savage Film and Eyeworks Film & TV Drama.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Simuţ, A. (2014), ‘Mapping impossible boundaries’, Ekphrasis: Images, Cinema, Theory, Media, 14:1, pp. 73–84.
     [Google Scholar]
  42. Stanard, M. (2011), ‘Learning to love Leopold: Belgian popular imperialism, 1830–1960’, in J. MacKenzie (ed.), European Empires and the People: Popular Responses to Imperialism in France, Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 124–57.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Tansia Bibo, T. (2018), ‘Je veux être active en politique’, in J. Moninga (ed.), Les Femmes de la diaspora congolaise de Belgique s’expriment, Bruxelles: Plateforme des Femmes de la Diaspora Congolaise de Belgique, p. 105.
     [Google Scholar]
  44. Thomas, N. (1996), Colonialism’s Culture: Anthropology, Travel and Government, Cambridge: Polity Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Thys, G. L. (2012), Mixed Kebab, Belgium: Fact & Fiction and Mollywood.
     [Google Scholar]
  46. van Beurden, S. (2013), ‘The value of culture: Congolese art and the promotion of Belgian colonialism (1945–1959)’, History and Anthropology, 24:4, pp. 472–92.
     [Google Scholar]
  47. van de Velde, L. (2019), ‘Black Pete, black motherhood and womanist ethics’, in A. Emejulu and F. Sobande (eds), To Exist Is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe, London: Pluto, pp. 141–50.
     [Google Scholar]
  48. van Dormael, J. (2015), Le Tout Nouveau Testament, Belgium: Terra Incognita Films.
     [Google Scholar]
  49. van Gelder, H. (2015), ‘Aesthetic dignity: Confronting the fraught legacy of Els Opsomer’s videos’, Image & Narrative, 16:3, pp. 59–72.
     [Google Scholar]
  50. van Hees, P. (2008), Linkeroever, Belgium: Caviar Films.
     [Google Scholar]
  51. van Hees, P. (2009), Dirty Mind, Belgium: Caviar Films.
     [Google Scholar]
  52. van Hees, P. (2014), Waste Land, Belgium: Czar Film, Epidemic and Mollywood.
     [Google Scholar]
  53. Vangroenweghe, D. (1985), ‘Introduction’, in Enquêtes et documents d’histoire africaine 6: Le rapport Casement, Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses de l’Université Catholique de Louvain, pp. 2–26.
     [Google Scholar]
  54. Vellut, J.-L. (1985), ‘Préface’, in Enquêtes et documents d’histoire africaine 6: Le rapport Casement, Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses de l’Université Catholique de Louvain, pp. i–xxviii.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jepc_00065_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): Belgian cinema; black feminist; Brussels; colonialism; Flemish; neo-noir; Waste Land

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error