me dives omni modo

Filip Firlefijn ist ein belgischer Künstler, Fotograf und Schriftsteller, der in der Schweiz lebt und arbeitet. Er ist bekannt für seine farbigen, großformatigen Porträts sowie seine dynamischen Skizzen ikonischer Figuren. Firlefijn studierte Literatur an der Universität Leuven und vertiefte sein künstlerisches Wissen in Kursen zu Kunstgeschichte und Kunstkritik. Zudem belegte er einen Kurs in - analoger - Fotografie am kulturellen Zentrum Stuk und entwickelte sich auch in diesem Bereich klassisch und künstlerisch weiter. In der Literatur erreichte er 2002 den zweiten Platz im Kurzgeschichten-Wettbewerb der Universität und begann daraufhin, Gedichte, Essays und Drehbücher zu verfassen.

International Showcase Film

HERE AND NOW – PART I

Feature Film – First Part of a Mini-Series

Written and created by Filip Firlefijn

Logline

In a fractured European suburb, a young man caught between cultures begins a quiet, inward descent that blurs the line between belonging and estrangement — a psychological journey into faith, frustration, and the fragile search for meaning.

Synopsis

Here and Now – Part I follows Akil, a young man of Middle Eastern background growing up in Belgium. Intelligent and restless, he lives between two worlds that rarely meet — the religious devotion of his parents and the secular indifference of his environment.

Through scenes at home, school, and the margins of the city, the film traces his emotional unraveling: his hope for connection slowly dissolves into anger, confusion, and idealisation. In the tension between empathy and alienation, Here and Now reveals the invisible fractures shaping European identity today.

The result is not a political drama but a human one — a story of dissonance, memory, and the silent struggle to find a voice.

Concept and Vision

The Here and Now trilogy explores the human psyche at the intersection of culture, consciousness, and belonging. Part I captures the fragile beginning of this arc: the quiet erosion of certainty in a young man’s heart.

The film’s aesthetic combines realism and meta-realism — the documentary precision of everyday life with a lyrical awareness of its inner meaning. Light, silence, and multilingual dialogue become the tools through which Europe’s fragmented soundscape finds cinematic form.

What emerges is a work of empathy rather than accusation — a film that invites reflection instead of reaction, understanding instead of judgment.

Research and Documentary Foundations

To achieve its psychological and cultural realism, Here and Now draws upon a broad base of documentary, journalistic, and literary sources.
The project’s initial documentation was inspired by De jihadkaravaan. Reis naar de wortels van de haat by Montasser AlDe’emeh and Pieter Stockmans (Lannoo, Tielt, fifth edition, 2016). Their first-hand insights into radicalisation and identity in Europe helped ground the character of Akil in authentic emotional experience.

From there, the film’s realism was enriched through additional research into Middle Eastern conflict, European radicalisation, mental health, and cross-cultural psychology.
Among the principal sources that informed the screenplay are:

Jürgen Todenhöfer, Inside IS – 10 Tage im „Islamischen Staat“ (Penguin / Verlagsgruppe Random House, München, 2017).
Janine di Giovanni, Der Morgen, als sie uns holten. Berichte aus Syrien (tr. Susanne Röckel, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2016).
Alison M. Thompson, The Boy from Hell: A Life with a Child with ADHD (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Philadelphia, 2013 / 2016).
Bruno Schirra, ISIS – Der globale Dschihad. Wie der „Islamische Staat“ den Terror nach Europa trägt(Ullstein, Berlin, 2016).
Patrick Loobuyck (ed.), De lokroep van IS. Syriëstrijders en (de)radicalisering (Pelckmans, Kalmthout, 2015

These materials served not as templates but as points of resonance — guiding the screenplay’s realism while allowing it to expand beyond journalism into symbolic and emotional territory. The fairy-tale fragments that appear in the narrative, for instance, draw partly on the Catholic imagination of Bomans and Tellegen, creating a subtle dialogue between Western and Eastern storytelling traditions.

The combination of psychological documentation, literary reflection, and lived observation grounds the film’s realism in research, respect, and artistic integrity.

Artistic Intent

Here and Now – Part I is not about terrorism or blame. It is about the emotional preconditions of alienation — the quiet psychological landscapes where misunderstanding, neglect, and inherited pain can take root.

By portraying this with empathy, restraint, and moral precision, the film hopes to foster awareness rather than fear, dialogue rather than division. Its realism is thus both social and spiritual — an attempt to look beyond the surface of crisis toward the shared human search for meaning.

Relevance for European Cinema

Cultural urgency: Addresses one of Europe’s defining challenges through empathy and nuance.
Human focus: Transforms sociopolitical issues into intimate, recognisable human stories.
Aesthetic coherence: Fuses journalistic realism with cinematic poetry.
Pan-European voice: A multilingual production (Arabic, Flemish, French, German) that mirrors the continent’s living complexity.

This is European cinema at its most necessary — searching, self-reflective, and profoundly human.

Author’s Statement

When I first conceived Here and Now, it was a small story about an outsider destroyed by his environment. But as I read, observed, and listened, the story expanded into a meditation on empathy itself. I realised that awareness — not ideology — is the true frontier.

The film became a way to explore what happens inside the silence of those who no longer feel seen. It is not about judgement, but about the fragile point where communication still remains possible.
— Filip Firlefijn

Why This Project Matters

Emotionally urgent and socially relevant, yet grounded in artistic integrity.
Meticulously researched through contemporary documentation and literary sources.
Bridges realism and myth, creating a cinematic dialogue between Europe and the Middle East.
Opens the trilogy as a wider reflection on awareness, reconciliation, and the modern human condition.

Closing Reflection

Here and Now – Part I stands as both a story and a gesture:
an invitation to look closer, to feel more deeply, and to acknowledge that the line between “us” and “them” is often drawn within the same human heart.