MAGASIN SHORT FILM
2015 · 23m · Belgium
Directed by Jordy Tempelman
Genres: crime, dark comedy, drama
Tones: dark, darkly comic, tense
Two homeless Belgian thieves rob a night shop and fall in with Julie, a career criminal, who puts their friendship to the test.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A heist setup that *looks* conventional until Julie arrives and the whole friendship dynamic implodes—it's the kind of noir-flavored premise everyone else would sand down into something safer, but Tempelman lets it stay sharp and petty.
Tempelman positions this within a lineage of Belgian crime cinema and small-scale ensemble drama, executing the tonal shifts between comedy and genuine threat with the kind of formal precision that rewards close viewing.
The film hinges on a single casting and performance choice with Julie that reframes everything that came before it—suddenly the theft plot becomes a study in how one person's presence can detonate a fragile bond, and that's the entire film working.