C’est arrivé près de chez vous (Mann beißt Hund)

At the beginning of the month, he likes to treat himself to a postman, serial killer Ben (Benoît Poelvoorde) cheerfully explains to the camera crew accompanying him on his “work rounds” before he springs into action. And it's not just Ben himself who is visibly enthusiastic about his solo entertainment skills; the film crew (led by Rémy Belvaux and André Bonzel) is so taken with him that they gradually move from “objective” observation to active participation. The increasing popularity of reality TV formats from the 1980s onwards triggered a wave of relevant media satires in cinema, all of which were surpassed by this small, bitterly angry Belgian debut film, which does without moral finger-wagging and instead plunges into the abyss with pitch-black humor. Like the producers, the audience becomes part of a voyeuristic chain of exploitation: from pleasure to disturbance. A controversial classic. (C.H.)