Charlie and Hannah, two women in their twenties, eat a magic sweet during a drunken Friday night out and everything and everyone around them changes. As they stroll through Antwerp, chatting about their past lovers and relationships, they end up in the most weird and wonderful situations. One minute they’re sitting in an Antwerp pub, the next they’re walking through a snowy landscape, they find themselves in a cosmic black hole or they’re hanging onto a flying pineapple.
This wonderfully absurd romantic comedy about love, sex and exes is full of bizarre encounters and perplexing incidents. In his highly imaginative first feature film, Belgian director Bert Scholiers plays with inventive visual gags, colour and black-and-white, changing screen sizes, and references to the silent cinema and the classic Italian horror genre.
Charlie en Hannah Gaan Uit (Charlie and Hannah’s Grand Night Out) is unique. Female leads Evelien Bosmans (28) and Daphne Wellens (29), who are also best friends in real life, put body and soul into their roles to draw audiences in. They are closely intertwined with their characters, and have used some of their own life experiences in their portrayal of Charlie and Hannah. “We both really shared Bert’s dream to convey the tragedy of our generation of spoilt, well-off, white 20-somethings in the most true-to-life, downplayed way possible.”