A Belgian film director.
A Belgian director with plenty of talent, Michaël Roskam (*1972) has worked mainly with French-speaking actors. He has, however, also created a successful international production, and managed to keep his high level throughout his oeuvre, in all languages. His style and imagery is very unique, making his artistry very distinctive.
The most important films in his oeuvre are these three, which I can all highly recommend:
Bullhead (2011) (Oscar nominee for best foreign feature film, original title: Rundskop)
The Drop (2014) (several awards at film festivals)
Le Fidèle (2017) (internationally known as: Racer and the Jailbird, several awards at film festivals)
The choice of actors he works with is outstanding, from Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts (in all 3 films) to talents such as Adèle Exarchopoulos (La vie d'Adèle), Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) or established actor such as Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini.
(Special recommendation of more films with Matthias Schoenaerts here.)
All films feature a dark and rather somber atmosphere, which is shown in beautiful cinematography, often with film noir-like elements. His characters are often ill-fitted to the world around them, and have suffered hardships from childhood on, leaving them distrustful and serious, but not without hope. Some moments in his films are somewhat rough, but never just for a cheap effect. In some moments in his films, Roskam has managed to create beauty which is almost poetic. In the following, here are some images from all three films to show some of the visuals.
(Images: IMDB)