Veerle Baetens (Alabama Monroe) adapts Debacle, based on the best-seller by Lize Spit (trailer)

Alabama actress Monroe is moving into directing.

Debacle projects the return to the sources of Eva, a young woman who, through her static silhouette and her haggard gaze, suggests to us a discomfort, even an uneasiness linked to her childhood. Previously, she formed an accomplice trio with Laurens and Tim, her two childhood friends. During an event, Eva is about to meet her old comrades again – but the meeting seems to be looming with apprehension. Before diving into the deep end, a retrospective of his childhood is outlined, including the most traumatic events…

Directed by the actress Veerle Baetens (seen in particular in Alabama Monroe, Tabula Rasa), Debacle is the adaptation of the eponymous bestseller Het Smelt (published in France under the title Debacle) of Lize Spit in 2016. A first film based on a first novel, on the road to success?

“A few years ago I was given Lize Spit’s novel, Het Smeltaccompanied by the following message: “Read it, I think you should adapt it for the cinema.” At the time, I was in the middle of filming a television series and this proposal out of nowhere left me a little stunned. I had no directing experience… Yet it was a dream I secretly cherished and this suggestion planted a little seed in me,” explain Veerle Baetens in the press release about the birth of this project.

Here is its trailer:

“I wanted to make a film about fragile people, who tend to absorb everything and with whom the world is often merciless, she continues. Many films are about resilience, about staying strong. I made this film for all those who bury their suffering deep within themselves, in a place where no one will be able to guess it and from where it devours them little by little.“

The cast of this nostalgic commotion includes Charlotte De Bruyne (adult Eva) and Rosa Marchant (Eva as a child). The latter also received the Best Actress Award at the 2023 Sundance Festival. Naomi Velissariou is also present in the role of the mother.

Debacle will be released in theaters on February 28, 2024.

Felix van Groeningen tells us about the creation of Alabama Monroe