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CONFITUUR / SWEET JAM
year2004 length 87' Country Belgium
directed by Lieven Debrauwer
Cast Marilou Mermans (Emma), Rik Van Uffelen (Tuur), Viviane De Muynck (Gerda), Ingrid De Vos (Rosa), Chris Lomme (Josée), Jasperina de Jong (Odette), Jaak Van Assche (Raymond), Eric Van Herrewege (Ronny)
Screenplay Jacques Boon, Lieven Debrauwer
Cinematography Philippe Guilbert
EditingPhilippe Ravoet
Art Direction Alan Leonis
Costume Design Erna Siebens
MusicMax Smeets
ProducerDominique Janne
Production K-Line/K2, CAB Productions, La Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR), R.T.B.F.
World Sales
TF 1 International
1, Quai du Point du Jour
92656 Boulogne Cedex (France)
Tel. +331 4141 1223 Fax +331 4141 4296
Press Office
Brigitta Portier, Alibi Communications
Tel +32 477 982584, e-mail alibi-com@skynet.be Mobile +39 338 9388685, +39 339 5674751
synopsis
Tuur (Rick Van Uffelen) is a shoemaker. For the past fifty years he has shared the joys and pain of a life together with his wife, Emma (Marilou Mermans). Gerda (Viviane De Muynck), his invalid sister lives with them.
On the day of their fiftieth wedding anniversary, Tuur is so exasperated by the emphasis that Emma conceived for the party (a band, a banner on the front of his shop...) that he decides to escape. He goes to his other sister Josée (Chris Lomme), who runs a cabaret together with her companion Odette (Jasperina de Jong).
This is Emma’s chance to revolutionise her life. She transforms her husband’s shop deciding to offer quality jams as well as shoe repairs.
Tuur is deceived by a woman whom he met at the cabaret and comes back home. But his wife - happy with her new life - does not show any happiness for his return. Gerda will solve their problems, with a much bitter ending...
Deliciously bitter sweet confection that is a notable entry in the small but impressive output of Flemish film making. Tuur is an elderly cobbler who, despite loving his wife Emma’s jam, is so exasperated with his routine and the overbearing presence of his bedridden sister, Gerda, that he just one day ups and leaves. His departure (to the much more welcoming night club surroundings of another sister) leads to a revolution in the dull cobbler household, as Emma not only learns how to mend shoes and cut keys but turns herself into a jam making entrepreneur. The effect of all of this is radical, as the sister begins to get her comeuppance and Tuur reconsiders whether he should accept an invitation to come home for Christmas. The result is a nicely plotted, cleverly characterised, warm and genuinely funny film, full of small fruity pleasures. The acting is nicely understated and the film has a luminous, nicely colourful look that perfectly compliments the film’s subject. Sweet Jam is in fact a soft but not sickly treat.
Adrian Wootton
director's statement
There's just one more thing, and that's LOVE.
How people find meaningful ways to express themselves in love, and how relationships form from that, fascinates me.
These days, all media are constantly being saturated by violence, both in and with images... In response, this film offers a love-filled search for subtlety, recognition and humor.
Lieven Debrauwer
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