Hermesensemble olv. Koen Kessels

A young Flemish farmer experiences the brutality of the First World War after his father leaves for the Yser front, his mother is executed by German soldiers and his grandfather is imprisoned in an internment camp. He decides to join the Belgian army and avenge the death of his mother, and it is only after the war that he is able to rebuild the farm and start a new life. This is the story of ‘La Belgique martyre’, the first post-war film in Belgium and the first in a series of eleven patriotic productions that attest to the embryonic state of the Belgian film industry at the time.
Over the past decade, the Hermes Ensemble has undertaken regular explorations by combining contemporary music creations with film, video and multimedia. This has always resulted in adventurous film concerts, performed in a series of European cities. ‘La Belgique martyre’ is to be released as a DVD by the Brusselse Cinematek, with new music composed by Hanne Deneire (1980). Deneire studied at the Antwerp conservatory under Wim Henderickx and Luc Van Hove, and her works have been performed from St Petersburg to Japan. Together with Dimitri Leue, she is working on her first opera.