Statement by the laureate of the LUX Prize 2013, Felix VAN GROENINGEN, director of "The Broken Circle Breakdown"

statement

Strasbourg

LUX Cinema Prize 2013 (T)

LUX Prize 2013: statement by the laureate, Felix VAN GROENINGEN, director of "The Broken Circle Breakdown"

Exterior view of the European Parliament, Strasbourg

SOUNDBITE (English), Felix VAN GROENINGEN, film director, Right now I'm extremely happy, it was pretty crazy to stand there in the Parliament. This film has found its way to the mind and hearts of an audience, even the European Parliament and that is fantastic.

SOUNDBITE (English), Felix VAN GROENINGEN, film director, It's a crazy love story, it is about a Belgian banjo player who meets that beautiful tattoo artist and although they're very different, they just click. And then we see how 6 years later they have a daughter, who is a beautiful kid, but starts to get ill. And then the movie goes back and forth, jumps some time and the question the movie is asking: when you go through such difficult times will love stand?

SOUNDBITE (English), Felix VAN GROENINGEN, film director, At some points during the making of this film I really panicked and I thought that I put too much in there cause there're big emotions, there is music, there is that love story, this kid, so there was a lot and somehow during editing I felt that it came together, that it became this flawing storym where once you can follow very good what is happening and the other time it becomes something like an emotional rollercoaster and I don't know how I managed, when you make something you try out a lot of stuff, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, so there is no big plan, it is just that you are trying to make it work.

SOUNDBITE (English), Felix VAN GROENINGEN, film director, Thsi film is mainly finnced in Belgium, so I don't think that prizes make if easier to finance a movy necessarily, I mean it can help, but it is great to feel that every film I make, I reach a little bit of wider audience, so I'm hoping to build further on that for another project. I'm sure I will, that's simpl the way things fo.