Christian Courtois

After a violent dispute with her mother, sixteen-years old Chloé ends up in the streets with nowhere to go. Then she finds Jean-Michel, a charming young man who will lead her to prostitution.

Albert, a sound engineer who is chronically hesitant successively meets three charming young women who will, each in their own way, provoke and help him to get a better hold of himself.

The theme of death is heavily interwoven in Smolder’s surreal salute to Belgian painter Antoine Wiertz, a Hieronymus Bosch-type artist whose work centered on humans in various stages in torment, as depicted in expansive canvases with gore galore. Smolders has basically taken a standard documentary and chopped it up, using quotes from the long-dead artist, and periodic statements by a historian (Smolders) filling in a few bits of Wiertz’ life.