Trópico Fantasma

This is my first Bas Devos film, and I must say it made me very much eager to watch his other outings.

The cinematography is fitting and inventive, with lots of attention given to lighting and composition. The acting is very natural: the scene with the teenage girl comes to mind. The relatively short runtime compensates for its slowness.

Next to all of this, the film makes one think about the experience of living as a working middle-aged Muslim woman in Western Europe, which is a refreshing perspective in cinema.

It was warming to watch Bas Devos' second film in a year's time (the first being Hellhole) which paints Brussels and its inhabitants with a much more charming brush. He did a great job of inspiring a multidimensional soul into, and offering a pedestal to a poorly understood and often overlooked minority: the small, middle-aged Muslim woman with few distinguishing features.

The film follows her on her journey from the final stop of a metro line after falling asleep through a wet and cold (and frankly, ugly) Brussels which, for the sake of the movie, has been jumbled up. On her walk, a number of friendly and less friendly encounters bring her to understand her own position and that of her 17-year old daughter who clearly no longer belongs to the same 'lost generation' as she does.

While I wouldn't want to watch a film like this every day, it was comforting to join Khadija on a reflection of my own nightly amblings through Brussels' streets, meeting other nocturnal creatures: slightly shy and uneasy but good-natured and human all the same. The film offers hope and inspiration, especially after the rather bleak Hellhole. I hope to see more of Bas Devos soon.

The artist or artists are average, the camera work is average, the scritp is not interesting at all, the movie is a waste of time

Thomas Leyers' production of Ghost Tropic is another big pretentious taxpayers' rip-off. His 40th snore fest film in ten years was again state-subsidized for the full 100% and "pro forma" released in a few local (Belgian) theaters.