This fall, ‘Avila, present!’ brings to the big screen the stylized big city lyric Seagulls Die In The Harbour by Rik Kuypers, Ivo Michiels and Roland Verhavert.

This little-known Belgian classic from 1955, indebted to the poetic realism of the pre-war French cinema of Marcel Carné or Julien Duvivier, depicts the wanderings of a tormented man – played by Julien Schoenaerts – through the streets of Antwerp in black and white images with strong expressionist lighting. His wandering is characterised by disillusioned and coincidental encounters, but also by the simple friendship with an orphan child and the affection of two disillusioned women.