ARCHIVES 2000 / Tous des Indiens (All the Indians)

Two houses. They look incredibly real. Or perhaps not, because after all, they are only a stage set. However, they have real doors and real windows and a gutter that is strong enough to hang from. When the windows are open you can hear everything they say. When they are closed, it's easy to imagine what is going on, but that's all. There are four bedrooms and two corridors, there is the street and there is an alley between the two houses. And twelve characters. They move and talk and are moving and talking at the top of their voices. All at the same time. All the Indians. In this sort of reserve, Frankie, the fireman, lives in one of the two houses. His wife has left. He is alone with Joeri, his son and Mireille, his sister. And in the other house, right on top - one wonders how they don't strangle each other - live Tosca and the four kids. In the launderette and elsewhere, a few of the locals. After Bernadetje (Avignon 1997), but without dance, this is a continuation of a dramatic chronicle among the community of Ghent: these "Indians" parked in a permanent and solid reserve look like all those who live in the new ghettos. They live, love, destroy each other, suffer, explose in the intensity of movements and music that accompany their lives.