The Best Work You May Never See: HAMLET's Jaco Van Dormael Directs "The Shape" For EU, Kommitment Agency

Jaco Van Dormael, the filmmaker behind the lauded feature Mr. Nobody (Audience Award winner at the European Film Awards) directs this short film The Shape via production house HAMLET in Brussels for the European Union, part of the “EUandME” campaign out of ad agency Kommitment.

With a hint of dystopia, The Shape shows a black cloud settling over a pleasant French village. The rain-like deluge begins pouring from the sky trapping the villagers into shelter, unable to go anywhere. The downpour destroys musical instruments, radios, computers and halts the freedom of civilian life. A heroic poetry reader steps outside into the black rainstorm and passionately recites French poet Paul Eluard’s well-known poem, “Liberté,” which immediately stops the downpour and the cloud vanishes, restoring the status quo.

The poem is particularly poignant as it is an ode to liberty written by Eluard in 1942 during the German occupation of France. 

The EUandME films underpin the European Union’s fundamental beliefs and opportunities for its citizens within the EU, such as the right to live without discrimination, freedom to travel, live, study and work across borders, promoting help with start-up businesses and freedom of speech.  

Van Dormael said: ““The script was good, so it was easy to direct. It is important to me because Europe is important to me. When you put a cardboard box in a field full of crows, the old crows fly away with fear, and the young crows are curious and go close to look at the box. Therefore it is important that the young people vote for Europe, not because of fear, but because of passion.”