INTRODUCTION :
D.V. Release bvba started the shooting of "PURGATORY", a fantasy supernatural thriller, English spoken and situated in Flanders (Belgium), in september 2009. Shooting occured in collaboration with numerous private companies.
 

STORYLINE :
After being locked up in an institution for several years for a personality disturbance and murder, Kristen Birger is released on parole. By means of therapy the medical staff of St. Carrol's Psychiatric Institution instructs her to return to her former apartment where she committed the crime seven years earlier. The moment she arrives at her flat, past and present seem to take her on a rollercoaster-ride of fear. On top of that, a mysterious man and religious fanatic, living in the room next to hers, has a hidden agenda.
 

PRODUCTION DATA :
Production company and producer is D.V. Release bvba and Johan Vandewoestijne aka James Desert is producer and executive producer.
Paul Keurvers is co-producer.
Reginald Van Severen who directed "State Of Mind" some years ago also in collaboration with Johan Vandewoestijne will be director of photography and director.

The orginal story was written by Liam Bradley.

Other technical collaborators are Marc Desmet, Serge Ghesquiere and Marc Roygens (camera), Fredo Gevaert (Temple of Tune-sound supervision), Erwin Busschaert (script continuity) and Tom Wyseur (art director). Paul Keurvers and Karin Van Duuren from US Entertainment in The Netherlands who manage a casting agency as well have joined the production team recently.  US Entertainment provided the casting for "Zwartboek", directed by Paul Verhoeven, and "The Discovery Of Heaven", directed by Ate de Jong. Very recently, composer Stefan Truyman, agreed to write the music for the film. The production team believed it was very important to have music with a stomach. Stefan wrote music for tv-shows such as "Expedition Robinson", adjacent to the "Rock" theme composed by Hans Zimmer. This is exactly the kind of music "Purgatory" needs according to producer Johan Vandewoestijne.

For the character of Limbus it is imperative that he wears a very specific outfit. For that matter fashion designer Griet Vandewiele was asked to take care of its creation.
For some scenes where the police busts in, it is important that everything looks as realistic as possible. For these scenes real policemen of the PZ Vlas (Kortrijk-Kuurne-Lendelede) were asked to do the job. This collaboration with PZ Vlas works out terrific.
US entertainment Group joined the production team recently. They handle part of the casting and some people of the crew.
 

THE CAST :
The leads are Marc Lensly, Jorka Decroubele, Ruth Verhelst and Richard Smolenaers.

Marc Lensly was born in Germiston, South Africa and works as an actor since 1997 on stage, for television and cinema. His native language is English. He had parts in Flemish series such as "Familie", "Flikken", "Thuis", "Recht op Recht" and "Los Zand". Marc Lensly also worked for the "Arca theater" and "Theater Tinnenpot" in Ghent and was for a year cast member at Theater Taptoe.

Jorka Decroubele studied at Studio Herman Teirlinck in Antwerp. She had roles in TV-series such as "Aspe", "Witse", "Spoed", "Wittekerke" and some short films. She acted in different groups and does voices for commercials and cartoons. She's the leading voice of "UKi" and the female voices in "Plankton Invasion" (all coming soon) ...

Ruth Verhelst is a professional bassguitar player and singer/composer. She did the backing vocals for Mariah Carey at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp and was freelance musician and singer with Billie King, Spark, Freddy Sunder Trio, Francis Goya, Marijn DeValck, Novastar, Daan, amongst others. Since many years she is also composer and singer-songwriter for lounge music. As Liss Norman, Ruth obtained a recordcontract with Universal France through the Manager of Maurane. This resulted in the release of two single CD's : "Une 7° chance" and "Seulement toi". With Novastar and Daan she did the great festivals such as Rock Werchter, Vorst Nationaal and TW Classic. As an actress she had guest appearances in tv series such as "Gilliams and De Bie", "Buiten de zone", "W817" and "Windkracht 10".

Richard Smolenaers has a bachelor of Fine Arts, Acting in the New York University, Tisch school of the Arts. He studied four years at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute and The Column Theater and Studio. He also took singing lessons at Ellen Shade in New York City. Amongst other Richard had parts in different short films and tv series such as "Sex And The City" for HBO, "Dangerous Waters" for Skywalker Productions and "Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden" for Endemol Nederland. On stage he performed parts (amongst others) in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for the Marilyn Monroe Theatre, "Julius Caesar" for the Penny Templeton Studio and "The Skin Of Our Theeth" at the Lee Strasberg Creative Center. In musicals he appeared as Jesus in "Godspell" for The Oasis Theatre Company, as Stainsworth the butler in "Beauty And The Beast" for the American Family Theatre tour and as Walt Dreary in "The Three Penny Opera" in The Palace Theatre, CT.

 

TECHNICAL DATA :
Shooting : 32 days spread over several weeks.
Release : Early beginning of 2012 ... Exact date will be announced soon !
The film will be shot in High Definition.

WHY DID POST PRODUCTION TOOK SO LONG ?
Finally, the post production of Purgatory is in its final stage. One can wonder ‘Why in the name of God took it so long ? After all, it wasn’t Apocalypse Now !’ … No, it wasn’t … but it sometimes sure felt like that. So, this is what happened …

After the shoot Ruth Verhelst, our lead actress, decided to go on a vacation. She headed for the Dominican Republic. She had plans to stay there for one month knowing very well she had to come back to do her dubbing lines. But being away for a few months was no problem since editing needed to be done and in the sound studio Temple of Tune other of their projects had priority.
It was the idea that Ruth would be back by November of last year. Suddenly she mailed us saying that it would be December in stead. Still no problem for us ! However, then we got another message saying she would be back after Christmas. Eventually, it became January and we realized that there was something very rotten in the state of Denmark.
We started to look for another actress who could replace her part in the dubbing. But this would create a lot of extra work for the sound people, so they weren’t to happy about the idea. Ruth also wasn’t very fond of the idea either as she wrote in her e-mails, but on the other hand she still remained in the Dominican Republic where she had decided to reside on a permanent base. The idea of having a film half ready and being stuck worked very hard on everyone’s mood (and that’s the least you could say). And it became even worse. Suddenly, she mailed us saying she didn’t had the financial means to buy a ticket for the plane from Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) with destination Paris and a ticket for the TGV from Paris to Lille (and back). So we were convinced that sooner or later we would have to buy her one.
In the mean time we met a P.R.-man by the name of Dirk Van der Eycken. During one of our conversations with Dirk Van der Eycken, we mentioned something about the problems we were facing with our actress. Dirk told us he had connections and said he would take care of this matter. And indeed, ten day later he phoned us saying that the Tourist office of the Dominican Republic in Brussels agreed to provide a plane ticket in return for publicity on the site and before the film starts. That’s why you can find a logo of the Dominican Republic and by clicking on the link below you can also watch the nice short promofilm of this exotic Island.
Eventually on March 20th of this year, Ruth arrived back in the country and FINALLY the sound post production could move on.
Today we are in the final stage. We expect the film to be ready by the second part of October. In the meantime Gino Van Hecke from Zeno Pictures agreed to distribute the film on DVD and Blu-ray !
‘All is well that ends well’ says the proverb … Well, we’re almost there but it’s been hell or at least Purgatory.