10th edition CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

Melody (2015 Feature Film)

Bernard Bellefroid | Belgium | 2014 | 90 min | French, English

Two women: one a rich, single businesswoman aged 48, the other a homeless hairdresser with a dream. These two very different lives are brought together by a pregnancy. Poignant, empathetic and strongly acted drama that asks questions about motherhood and childhood. Who takes care of who? And what makes a good mother?

Director Bernard Bellefroid’s first feature, The Boat Race (2009), and his documentaries both fall into place in this sensitive drama, in which he follows the journeys of a woman wanting a baby and a surrogate mother.

To earn the money to start her own hairdressing business, 28-year-old homeless woman Melody agrees to be a surrogate mother for Emily, a rich English businesswoman aged 48. To keep an eye on Melody (and her unborn child), Emily decides that the surrogate mother should live with her during her pregnancy in her big house on the English coast. In spite of mistrust, doubts and fears, a bond develops between the women. In Emily, Melody finds the mother she never had, and in turn Emily begins to see Melody as the daughter she always wanted.

Bellefroid takes a humane look at a highly charged subject, intuitively played out by Rachael Blake and Lucie Debay, who were jointly awarded best actress at the Montreal World Film Festival.

Place: The Cinemas 1

Date: 27 March 2015

Time: 21:15

Duration: 1:45

Place: The Cinemas 3

Date: 28 March 2015

Time: 19:15

Duration: 1:45

Place: The Cinemas 4

Date: 29 March 2015

Time: 10:45

Duration: 1:45

Year in
Festival

2015

Director

Bernard Bellefroid

Camera

David Williamson

Cast

Rachael Blake
Lucie Debay
Don Gallagher
Laure Roldan
Clive Hayward
Lana Macanovic
Julie Maes

Country

Belgium

Editor

Jean-Luc Simon

Language

French
English

Length

90 min

Music

Frédéric Vercheval

Producer

Patrick Quinet

Production Company

Artémis Productions

Production Design

Régine Constant

Sales

Doc & Film International

Scenario

Bernard Bellefroid
Carine Zimmerlin
Anne-Louise Trividic
Marcel Beaulieu

Sound Design

Carine Zimmerlin

Year of Production

2014

Website

Bernard BELLEFROID (1978, België) studeerde journalistiek maar besloot na twee jaar over te stappen naar de Belgische nationale filmschool (INSAS). Hij studeerde af met de intense documentaire Rwanda, les collines parlent (2005). Bellefroids eerste speelfilm La régate (2009) ontving enthousiaste kritieken en vier nominaties in de eerste editie van de Belgische Margritte Awards. Tijdens IFFR 2015 gaat zijn film Melody (2014) in Europa in première.

 

Filmography

(selection) Rwanda, les collines parlent/Rwanda, The Hills Speak Out (2005, doc), La régate/The Boat Race (2009), Melody (2014)