The Misfortunates

The Misfortunates (De helaasheid der dingen, 2009) is a Belgian tragicomedy directed by Felix van Groeningen — watch it online on iFILM. Adapted from Dimitri Verhulst's autobiographical novel, it swept the Magritte Awards as Belgium's best film and was the country's official submission for the Academy Awards that year.

Thirteen-year-old Gunther grows up in a house run by his father and three uncles. They drink constantly, brawl enthusiastically, and hold down jobs only by accident. His grandmother endures it all in near-silence. Kenneth Vanbaeden plays Gunther as a kid who watches everything and slowly realizes he might be inheriting this life by osmosis. Van Groeningen keeps cutting between Gunther's present-day adolescence and glimpses of his adult self looking back — which shifts the whole film from farce toward something harder to shake.

The reason it works is that none of these men are villains. They're funny, they're warm, they're completely useless — and that combination is more unsettling than cruelty would be. Stream The Misfortunates online on iFILM.