Ben (Boris Van Severen) sits at a roulette table in a casino, absorbed in the game. “Rien ne va plus” echoes in the background. And then something “happens” to Ben. The opening scene is intense, immediately raises many questions and touches on some core themes of the series: trauma, loss, grief, loneliness.
“Ben has turned away from the past,” explains Jef Hoogmartens, who wrote the series, in conversation with VRT NWS. “And because of that he is not busy building a future.”
“For me, that scene in the casino symbolizes the ultimate now: win or lose. And there is something very lonely about that state of being.”
For Hoogmartens, the series is also about something that was once important, but has been forgotten. “Moresnet was an incredibly important historical fact. While: I live a stone’s throw from it, but had never heard of it. Or resignation about a forgotten childhood love, who was once the most important thing to you.”
Watch: Meet the Characters in the ‘Moresnet’ Trailer:
Passieproject ‘Moresnet’
‘Moresnet’ has undergone many years of maturation. It is the passion project of Frank Van Passel, Jef Hoogmartens and Jonas Van Geel who created the tragicomic fiction series ‘Amateurs’ that was shown on VTM in 2014.
“Soon after that we wanted to make something together,” Hoogmartens explains. “Frank Van Passel came up with the idea of Neutral Moresnet. But we soon discovered that a series about its origins would have to be a period series, which would be prohibitively expensive if we wanted to do it right.”
from left to right the makers of ‘Moresnet’: Jonas Van Geel, Jef Hoogmartens and Frank Van Passel during the Belgian premiere.
Foto: PHNX AGENCY
“That’s why we looked at the possibility of bringing the history of Moresnet into something contemporary and seeing if we could use it as a kind of iceberg underwater. At the same time, I also had an idea about a man who returns to his birthplace and digs up a time capsule with a death list. We have brought these two ideas together and were able to develop them thanks to development support from the Flemish Audiovisual Fund.”
The time capsule also contains the diary of Daan, Ben’s brother. On the last page, the friends discover a list of names with their dates of death.
Where is Moresnet?
Moresnet is a sub-municipality of Plombières in the Belgian province of Liège. It is located in the border area of Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
From 1816 to 1919 it was known as Neutral Moresnet, a neutral territory. During WWI it was occupied by Germany and afterwards it was awarded to Belgium.
In the 19th century it became an industrial mining site. A mining community emerged in the village with homes, shops and at least 60 cafes and gambling houses. For a limited period, its own stamps and coins were used. And even the artificial language Esperanto made a brief breakthrough.
First leading role for Boris Van Severen
Boris Van Severen is the first actor to be cast. He has previously appeared in series such as ‘Salamander’, ‘Studio Tarara’ and ‘Baptiste’ and films such as ‘Belgica’ and ‘Skunk’. By April 2022, he knew he would be starring. The recordings will not start until the autumn of 2023, 1.5 years later.
The advantage is that you have a very long period to prepare, although according to Van Severen this can also be a disadvantage. “You feel the pressure on your shoulders, or you put it on yourself, that it must be a top performance.”
Frank Van Passel is the crème de la crème of Flemish directors
“During the first 2 weeks of recording, it was sometimes paralyzing. It was the first time I played the main character that it’s all about and I had the feeling that I had to pull it all off. Fortunately, there was a lot of support on set. in the search for the character. At a certain point you also have to trust your preparation and just let go. After that it was a nice ‘letting go’ trip, it was wonderful, because I knew that everything was in it.”
This project included all the parameters that Van Severen finds important as an actor to fully commit to a role. “A director with whom I would like to work: Frank Van Passel is the crème de la crème of Flemish directors. A top scenario. And a character that tells me ‘something’: with a darkness or lightness, ‘something’ that is twisted. I found it super interesting. Everything went well and I knew: I have to do this, there is no doubt about that.”
Photo: Caviar
Internationale topcast
In addition to Van Severen, ‘Moresnet’ can count on a (inter)national top cast including Dutch actors Pierre Bokma (can also be seen on Streamz in ‘The Jewish Council’) and Jade Olieberg (‘The club’), the Flemish Joke Emmers, Arend Pinoy in Bram DeWin and the German one Leonie Benesch (known for ‘Babylon Berlin’ and the Oscar-nominated film ‘The teachers’ lounge’).
Benesch plays Eva Rolin, the new CEO of Thalamus, a German multinational that conducts research into everything related to the human brain. Their mysterious Eterneco project plays a central role in the story. In their race against time (according to the death list they will die within 10 days), Ben and Zoë try to avert the seemingly irreversible fate of the group of friends and that also leads them to Thalamus.
Leonie Benesch plays Eva Rolin, the CEO of German multinational Thalamus.
Photo: Caviar
“When it became clear that 40 to 50 percent of the story would take place in Frankfurt, we also started casting in Germany,” Hoogmartens explains. “We were extremely lucky that Leonie Benesch had not yet been nominated for an Oscar at that time. Thanks to Boris and Leonie, you felt that more and more people wanted to participate.”
“It was so important to us that the puzzle fit,” Hoogmartens explains. “Everyone in the group of friends around Ben is 34 to 35 years old. That also limits you. It helps that Boris and Joke Emmers are already more established figures in Belgium, but you also want new faces.”
Ben’s friends decide to dig up the time capsule they buried 22 years earlier.
Photo: Caviar
Van Passel, the “insanely good actor director”
The man who, according to Hoogmartens and Van Severen, made everything come together was director Frank Van Passel: an “insanely good actor’s director”.
Van Passel also directed ‘The taste of De Keyser’, ‘Villa des Roses’, ‘Back to Oosterdonk’ and ‘Manneken Pis’.
AFP or licensors
“We were so keen that they would be people of flesh and blood,” Hoogmartens emphasizes. “The story dares mysterythriller-wise larger than life but at the end of the day it always had to be a people’s story.”
Because all those people are struggling with demons from the past and personal traumas. “Each character struggles with an inner struggle,” Van Severen explains. “They’re trying to get over things they experienced in the past.”
Are we in control of our own lives or are we doomed to face our death date and nothing more?
Van Severen calls the story an “ode to failing people”. “What I experienced in the past has shaped me into who I am today or am I more than that, that was fairly central to me.”
And the contrast between the feasibility of a life versus the inevitability of fate. “Are we in control or are we doomed to meet our death date and nothing more? I find it fascinating because we don’t know.”
Pulling the viewer into a trap
The makers also want to convey an atmosphere in ‘Moresnet’ that captures the spirit of the times. “We live in a time when people have the feeling (rightly or wrongly) that all kinds of things are happening above their heads. That atmosphere of film noir, there is something lurking here, a kind of Unheimlichkeit (oppressive, uneasy feeling, ed.), that we wanted to try to contribute.”
“We hope that you as a viewer will end up in a trap. The series is structured like a roller coaster. It starts up very slowly, but you know that there will come a point where it goes very fast. That’s how the series works. Ultimately, there will be an answer to the questions we raise, we hope that is satisfactory, but we think it is.”
In principle, there is still material to make more seasons. “But the 1st season can certainly stand on its own,” Hoogmartens concludes. “Our mission statement was: every question we raised in episode 1 was answered in episode 6.”
‘Moresnet’ can only be seen on Streamz for the time being. Earlier this year, the series had its world premiere during Canneseries and was also shown at the Cologne Film Festival.
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