Breaking Down

Days out from 2014 Oscar nominations, and Felix Van Groeningen is nervous. The Flemish filmmaker's latest feature The Broken Circle Breakdown is on the shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film. “Being on that Oscar shortlist, it's been occupying my thinking,” he remarks. “I'm not desperate to be nominated, but I know how much it will mean.”

The Broken Circle Breakdown would, indeed, end up with a nomination; curiously so, given the Belgian film – which is set across the presidency of George W Bush – is open in its disdain for neo-conservative America. “When the leader of the most powerful nation in the world is very religious, it really does push those religious values upon the rest of the world,”  the 36-year-old says. “The fact that this man was ever in power amazes and horrifies people all over Europe.”

Across its seven years, The Broken Circle Breakdown spans the relationship of a pair of bluegrass musicians; from when they first meet, to when their daughter is diagnosed with leukaemia, to when things fall apart. “There's so much stuff: there is the love story, there is the cancer story, there is the music. I did actually panic in the middle of shooting, like: 'How is this all going to come together? Is this all just too much?'.”

Van Groeningen was attracted by the way the characters reconciled making God-fearin', all-American music while harbouring atheist, anti-American sentiments. “Johan's [Heldenbergh, lead actor] take on this,­ as both a writer and with his character,­ is that he's an atheist, but even if he doesn't share the beliefs of the people who created it, he understands why they need it. Why people believe in religion and why they make art is often for the same reason: to confront the things in life that are just too hard to cope with.”

Heldenbergh wrote the original stageplay, which Van Groeningen was “blown away by” when he first saw it performed in 2009. “It was such a cathartic experience,” he recounts. “I cried my eyes out. It's about the biggest fears that one goes through.” Those tears kept flowing once filming on The Broken Circle Breakdown began. “It was a crazy film to shoot. I was crying every day, then I'd have to pick myself up and do it again.”

Afterwards, the filmmaker was unsure whether his adaptation would be a success. “But from the very first premiere,” he says, “I've never had people react to any of my films like this. After every screening, people come up to talk to me, but it's never about the film. They just want to tell me about their own lives. It's like therapy for people.”

WHAT: The Broken Circle Breakdown
In cinemas 15 May