Disconnected, a village in distress

Feature Docs

Run Time

53'

Year of Production

2017

Producer

RTBF & Dancing Dog Production

Pitch

In the midst of the climate emergency, Belgium has decided to build a new section of highway in the Couvin region, to connect Amsterdam to Marseille. In the game of globalization and international trade, the small village of Brûly, with a population of 300, plays the role of the loser. Nestled in the middle of the Ardennes forest, flooded with trees and serenity, Brûly is now split in two by this highway, planned for decades but only recently realized. Its inhabitants, often poor and socially isolated, are the forgotten ones of this project that has made the pride of the Walloon Region. The promised economic benefits seem to be empty promises. For five years, an exceptional duration, a director born in Brûly, Valéry Mahy, followed the construction site and the distress of the inhabitants. With 'Disconnected', he gives a voice, in an intimate way, to the usual forgotten ones of this kind of pharaonic project, the disconcerted residents who lost their living environment for the benefit of economic interests that are not theirs.

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