Why this politico-criminal affair could only take place in Belgium
A politician tipped to become Prime Minister is suspected of having murdered his wife. Guilty or innocent? The Enemy by Stephan Streker (Wedding) will try to give the answer around Jérémie Renier, magnetic as an amnesiac suspect facing Emmanuelle Bercot as a lawyer, Alma Jodorowsky as a future victim and Félix Maritaud as a fellow prisoner.
“I am freely inspired by the Wesphael casea news item which made a lot of noise in Belgium but which is not known in France”, explains Stephan Streker to 20 minutes. This Belgian politician, who had found his wife dead in a hotel room, assured that it was a suicide, which the autopsy report invalidated. Stephan Streker skilfully added the fiction around this news item with one conviction: only in Belgium could this story take place.
“Only in our country can a prominent politician be arrested without being immediately recognized,” he laughs. This would be unthinkable in France and this comes from the fact that Belgium is divided in two. As he is French-speaking, the Flemings hardly knew him! And the politician does not confess in his own language. Hence the problems of translation between the French and the Flemish in the procedure which adds to the absurdity of the whole. A wind of fantasy hangs over this enigma which allows us to understand the passionate and toxic relationship between the deputy and his wife.
Ostend seaside resort with a somewhat sinister, but warm atmosphere, is a full-fledged character in this thriller as fascinating as the masks in the style of
Jacques Ensor carried by the hero. Uneasiness gently seizes the spectator carried away by the mystery within a country whose director paints a picture as attached as poisonous.