With his stark, confronting, and highly realistic thriller Maldoror(IFFR 2025), Fabrice Du Welz fictionalises the 1990s case of Belgian serial killer and child molester Marc Dutroux. Without overtly sensationalising the shocking source material. As such, Maldoror raises many questions about the ways one can bring true crime stories to the screen. How do you sensitively find a balance between realism and entertainment? And what is the responsibility of films and podcasts when dealing with distressing and traumatising events of recent history?
In this Tiger Talk, Du Welz is joined by director, writer and podcast creator Annegriet Wietsma, whose varied work includes the popular Dutch podcast series De Deventer Mediazaak (2021), about how an infamous murder of a Dutch widow from Deventer fueled a frenzied circus in the Dutch media landscape. Moderated by Hugo Emmerzael, this talk explores the tension between entertainment, fiction and reality, and surveys what happens when scandalous source material gains a life of its own in the publics’ consciousness.
