Maldoror 4K 2024

Maldoror is a painful film about the pathology of the Belgian law enforcement system in the 1990s... Essentially, it is a detective story that freely interprets real events with artistic flair, without which no one would (or could) watch such a film. And this detective story is dedicated to a brutal crime against young children who could not be saved due to the total lack of coordination between the police and gendarmerie in Brussels. The neighboring agencies, which in fact should have been actively helping each other in the search for the criminal and the investigation of the case, ended up competing with each other, firmly gluing their backsides to their heated chairs.

I admit, I was expecting a thriller — in the spirit of Captive and Captives (yes, these are two different films, don't confuse Reynolds and Gyllenhaal). Perhaps with bloody or dirty details, with the horrors of basements and so on. But my expectations are my problem, and it's better when they don't come true: you get a completely different perspective that allows you to look at a familiar genre in a different way. It's a very quiet procedural, where each participant in the process stays on their own wavelength. Only an overly honest cop who wants to make amends for his unpleasant past sinks his teeth into the investigation, so much so that he forgets about his new wife, his plans for the future, and even his promising career. However, his zeal alone is not enough to influence the process, because “society is sick,” and no one can cure it alone.

The plot, which lasts 2.5 hours — yes, you have to be prepared for that — unfolds with a slowness worthy of the Belgian internal affairs officers of that time. Events that seem scattered at first glance are painstakingly pieced together into the final picture, but it seems unnecessary, given that the case was not fully solved in reality and was fraught with problems. The film itself — like, probably, the Maldoror case — is a pile of fragments, scraps that are so difficult to put together, because something always slips away from attention, and as soon as you raise your head and turn away, you have to dive back into the subject, because each element works to break the context.

You won't find any true crime here: this is not a documentary, but an auteur film with a certain perspective. However, the visual snapshot of the time is successful: the result is a social drama, even a tragedy about universal indifference and powerlessness — in muted, even dirty tones, with a deliberately uneven sound background and uncomfortable dynamics.