Get Your First Taste Of Koen Mortier's 22ND OF MAY

We have been very outspoken supporters of Belgian director Koen Mortier in these pages from the day we first came across his stunning feature debut, Ex Drummer, at the Toronto International Film Festival and the coming years promise to be busy ones for the Belgian auteur.  Not only is he hard at work prepping an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted and producing several other Belgian projects via his CCCP production outfit but before he makes his English debut with the Palahniuk he'll be shooting another Belgian project. Due to begin principal photography any day now is 22nd of May, a terrorism themed project we first reported on back in 2007.  Here's an excerpt from the synopsis:

... While everything around him is burning, Sam tries his best to help. He drags a woman outside against her will. She is screaming, struggling to get back inside to save her child. But Sam is already back on the scene, trying to rescue other victims, all of them just as helpless as he is. They are strewn over the floor, covered in blood, their clothes shredded to pieces, feeling utterly lost. As their cries turn into screams, Sam is overpowered by fear and panic. First there was the shock, then the realization of what happened. Without thinking, he starts to run, turning his back to the apocalyptic scene. He flees, running along the streets of a city that once felt as familiar as a friend, but now seems more like a dark monster ...

In Mortier's hands this should be harrowing stuff but you don't need to just take my word for it.  In a bit of a dual purpose move, Mortier has just completed a music video for Guy van Nueten which also doubles as a camera test for some of the explosion effects that will be employed in the feature.  It's beautiful, eerie work, quite reminiscent of some elements from Ex Drummer and not just because it shares an actor.  Check it below.