Entering the Walloon Gothic: Nationalist Border Crossing and Othering in Contemporary Flemish Cinema

Over the last decade, Belgium's Dutch-speaking region of Flanders has been marked by a nationalist impulse. This is most clearly visible in the discourses and electoral success of nationalist parties, which call for a greater degree of Flemish independence from the Belgian state and its southern, French-speaking region of Wallonia. This article analyzes how a certain strand within contemporary Flemish cinema relates to such Flemish nationalist discourses. This is done by investigating the representation of Wallonia and its citizens as a national other in four mainstream films: Bullhead (2011), Cub (2014), The Ardennes (2015) and Blind Spot (2017). Through structuring their narratives around the border crossing of a Flemish protagonist into Walloon territory, these films activate a series of nationalist stereotypes and antagonistic discourses that help heighten the Belgian community conflict. The Walloons are framed as national others that either pose a threat or signify a burden to the Flemish protagonist. Moreover, Wallonia itself becomes a hostile space that is imbued with transgressive qualities, capable of corrupting the cohesion of the Flemish self. This representational regime is aesthetically and thematically underlined by evoking a type of 'Walloon Gothic', in which association with the Walloon soil becomes synonymous with a sense of spiritual degradation