El Gouna Film Festival

Director

Philippe Van Leeuw

Philippe Van Leeuw is a Belgian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer. He made his feature-length debut in 2009 with The Day God Walked and in 2017, he wrote and directed Insyriated (titled In Syria in several territories), which premiered at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. At Belgium’s 8th Magritte Awards, the film won all six awards it was nominated for, tying the Awards record for most awards won, including Best Film and Best Director.

THE WALL(2023)

(2023)

Feature Narrative Competition, United States, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, English - 96 min

Director

Philippe Van Leeuw

United States, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark | 2023 | 96 min | English

Producer Guillaume Malandrin
Production Company Altitude 100 Production
Screenplay Philippe Van Leeuw
Cinematography Joachim Philippe
Editing Gladys Joujou
Sound Mikkel Gross, Paul Heymans, Alek Gosse
Cast Vicky Krieps, Mike Wilson, Ezeikel Velasco, Haydn Winston
Contacts
International Sales: Indie Sales, festival@indiesales.eu

About the Film

Luxembourg actress Vicky Krieps delivers a strikingly complex performance in The Wall as an overzealous – bordering on bigoted - US border patrol agent who pushes herself and her role right to the edge before ultimately going way beyond the boundaries of her duty. Philippe van Leeuw’s film shines the spotlight on the brutality that can lurk at the US-Mexico border without ever simplifying its characters and at heart subtly calls out for a coherent and humane border policy.

Agent Jessica Comely (Krieps) clearly has a deep dislike for the migrants attempting to cross the border, and while she is tough in her work, her obsessiveness also means that she tends to outperform her fellow agents. Her superiors are aware of her maverick personality, but she gets the job done, despite the fact that her personal life is deteriorating...she has a challenging family, ill friends and a deep sense of not fitting in.

Things come to a head when a Native American man and his young grandson come across dead and injured migrants deep in the desert and flag down Comely and her partner to get them to try and help one of the wounded. A gun-toting Comely overreacts and accidentally shoots the man as he lies bleeding. In a moment of panic they plant a weapon on the dead migrant - and potentially frame the grandfather-grandson duo for the killing – but also sees her ultimately finally cross the line from problematic authority figure to genuinely troubled villain. It is her word against theirs.

But it is Kriep’s powerful performance that avoids The Wall becoming a simplistic attack on a deeply problematic US border policing practice. Yes her character is driven by an anti- migrant ideological conviction, but she is riven with flaws as well as being blessed with moments of tenderness, which helps make the film provocative and highly watchable.

Mark Adams

THE WALL (2023)

(2023)

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About the Film

Director

Philippe Van Leeuw

THE WALL(2023)

(2023)

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