Perfect Darkness

A film by

Belgium | 24' | 10/2016 | documentary

Gus and his pregnant girlfriend Anna are on holiday. During their nightly walk to a spot near the water, Anna makes a confession. Can the couple, amidst the wildness of nature and under a full moon, overcome the conflict? Will they reach their idyllic spot? Perfect Darkness is a short about the nature of love, filmed in one shot.

Maaike Neuville

Biography

Maaike Neuville (°1983) is an actress and a director . She graduated in 2005 at Studio Herman Teirlinck in Antwerpen. She quickly found her way as an actress in theatre, film and television. More info about Maaike as an actress can be found here.

A few years in her acting career, Maaike started feeling the itch to get behind the camera herself and direct. Maaike worked on a first short film, motivated a whole crew and the Flemish top actors Katelijne Damen and Frank Vercruyssen to join her in the adventure. The result was the very poetic short film Terug Weg (‘Way Back’) about an impossible love.

On account of this film, she was invited to the Talent Campus at the Berlin Festival in 2011.

In 2012, Maaike decided to take a Master as a director at the St-Lucas school of art. With her graduation project, Sonnet 81, she scored a bullseye.  She won the Award for the Best Debut at the International Short Film Festival in Leuven and received a Wildcard of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund to finance her next project, Perfect Darkness.

Meanwhile, Sonnet 81 has been screened on a series of national and international festivals.

Maaike uses her acting experience in her work as a director, but also applies her experience behind the camera in her acting work. The two disciplines reinforce each other.

Filmography

  • Terug Weg / Way Back– short fiction (2010)
  • Sonnet 81 – short fiction (2013)
  • Perfect Darkness – short fiction (2017)
  • Rouwdagboek – short experimental (2018)
Square Eyes -

Crew

Director: Maaike Neuville
Screenplay: Maaike Neuville (inspired by Verklärte Nacht by Richard Dehmel)
Producer: Animal Tank (Brecht Van Elslande & Bert Lesaffer)
Cinematographer: Grimm Vandekerckhove
Sound: Kwinten Van Laethem
Editor: Fairuz Ghammam
Composer: Arnold Schönberg
Line producers: Brecht Van Elslande & Victoria Trzeciak
Cast: Eva Binon, Jorge Jauregui Allue

Festivals

  • International Short Film Festival Leuven, Belgium (3 – 10 December, 2016)
    National Competition & Openings Program
  • Glasgow Short Film Festival, United Kingdom (15 – 19 March, 2017)
    International Competition
  • Sehsüchte International Student Film Festival, Germany (26 April – 1 May, 2017)
    Short Film Competition
  • Brussels Short Film Festival, Belgium (27 April – 7 May, 2017)
    National Competition
  • VIS Vienna Shorts Film Festival, Austria (1 – 6 June, 2017)
    Fiction & Documentary Competition
  • La Guarimba International Film Festival, Italy (7 – 11 August, 2017)
    Official Fiction Competition
  • Film Festival Oostende, Belgium (8 – 16 September, 2017)
    Ensor Awards
  • Festival Off-Courts Trouville, France (8 – 16 September, 2017)
    Competition
  • Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur, Belgium (29 September – 6 October, 2017)
    Focus Cinema
  • Brest European Short Film Festival, France (7 – 12 November, 2017)
    Special program
  • Crossing The Screen, United Kingdom (23 – 26 November, 2017)
    Competition
  • International Film Festival 2ANNAS, Latvia (28 November – 3 December, 2017)
    International Short Film Competition
  • Eindhovens Film Festival, the Netherlands (6 – 10 December, 2017)
    Official Selection
  • THESS International Short Film Festival Thessaloniki, Greece (13 – 17 December, 2017)
    Official Selection
  • Des Courts en Hiver – cinéma & poésie, France (25 – 27 January, 2017)
    Offical Selection
  • Short Waves Festival, Poland (20 – 25 March, 2018)
    International Competition
  • cellu l’art Short Film Festival, Germany (24 – 29 April, 2018)
    International Competition
  • Kyiv International Short Film Festival, Ukraine (25 – 29 April, 2018)
    Out of Competition: Festival Hits
  • International Short Film Festival Leuven, Belgium (1 – 9 December, 2018)
    Maaike Neuville retrospective