In their debut feature, Vitrival – The Most Beautiful Village in the World, Belgian directors Noëlle Bastin and Baptiste Bogaert invite us to delve into a seemingly peaceful corner of the world, where everyday life—simple yet charming—begins to crack under the weight of a series of unsettling events. What starts with graffiti of phalluses in public spaces, including the church door, soon evolves into a wave of suicides that shakes this rural, French-speaking community in southern Belgium.
The film does not aim to construct a conventional police thriller. On the contrary, the investigation led by Benjamin and Pierre, two cousins and municipal police officers, unfolds at the calm pace of the countryside, amidst unhurried patrols, shared cups of coffee, and festivities like the Grand Feu or the Marche Royale Saint-Pierre, which serve as temporal markers in the narrative. As the seasons change, the village tries to make sense of the incomprehensible without losing its essence.
Bastin and Bogaert craft a dry, delicate comedy anchored in the patient observation of village habits and the peculiarities of its residents. From the radio announcer who accompanies each day with local musings, to the neighbor who meticulously tracks the emotions of others from his balcony, every character contributes to outlining a network of relationships that sustains Vitrival even amid uncertainty. Far from embracing melodrama, the film privileges detail and subtlety. The relationship between the protagonists, full of knowing silences and everyday gestures, becomes the emotional anchor of the story. Pierre, caught between tradition and a latent desire for change, and Benjamin, more reserved yet equally sensitive, represent two ways of facing the tension between the collective and the intimate.
The use of non-professional actors, many of them locals from the village itself, brings a level of authenticity that is hard to fake. That naturalness translates into a sober, almost inadvertent humor that doesn’t hide the weight of what is being told, but makes it more bearable.
