Benoît Mariage

The filmmaker Benoît Mariage found the ideal actor in Benoît Poelvoorde. The actor joyfully embodies the appalling everyday baseness of homo occidentalis, and the director exploits this sardonic vein to perfection without ever losing sight of the extenuating circumstances of the human condition. The two Benoîts both hail from Namur, and their collaboration first began with the short film Le Signaleur, in which Poelvoorde starred opposite Olivier Gourmet.

In the first feature film they made together, Les Convoyeurs attendent, the actor plays a frustrated father who forces his son to break a world record. This film was inspired by certain characters that Mariage encountered during the filming of episodes of Strip Tease.

Cowboy portrays a journalist whose glory days are over, and who tries to make it back onto the front page by recycling an old hostage story.

In Les Rayures du zèbre, Benoît Poelvoorde is the talent scout of a European football club. His job: to seek out “black gold”, to sign up young African talent, who have become nothing more than cheap merchandise.

In collaboration with CINEMATEK