Coward: a new perspective on WWI

While taking a step up in terms of budget, Coward continues Dhont's creative vision. “In terms of production value, we’ve gone to a higher level, but we’ve stayed close to Lukas’s cinema, which is very intimate and character-driven,” says Michiel Dhont, the film’s producer and partner with Lukas in production company The Reunion.

Coward tells the story of Pierre, a young Belgian soldier who wants to prove himself on the battlefield during the First World War. Behind the frontlines, he meets Francis, who has been tasked with finding a way to boost morale.

This meeting takes place in the sunshine of late summer and early autumn, a marked contrast to the cold and rain usual in First World War films. “The strength of Lukas’s cinema is always the pop of colour, the joy, and we thought it was different for a period piece like this to be set in the summer, where the soldiers are sweating and you can see the movement of the male body,” says Michiel.

From the outset, the goal was to film as much of the film as possible in Belgium, rather than turn to cheaper alternatives in eastern Europe, for example. 

Two principal locations were needed for the film: a battlefield with its trenches and craters, and a camp behind the lines where the soldiers stay when not engaged in combat.

“For the camp, we didn’t have the budget to build everything from scratch, so we looked for an old farm in West Flanders, which has the characteristic landscape of horizon and fields, and then planned to construct extra barns and stables,” Michiel recalls. “We saw over 50 farms, so it was not an easy task, but we had a very strong research team, who also helped is make the connection between the old and new elements that we needed to complete the locations.”

In the end, a farm near the village of Alveringem was chosen, while the battlefield was reconstructed in fields at Houthulst. The production also filmed at a range of other locations across Flanders, including the sumptuous Meir Palace in Antwerp and the neoclassical Lozer Castle in Kruisem, and at other sites in Ghent, Puurs-St-Amands, Vremde and Haacht. A few scenes were also filmed in the north of France.

“The people in Flanders, where we shot most of this film, were really helpful,” Michiel recalls. “In pre-production, we talked a lot with the provincial governors and mayors of villages, and when it came to permits and so on, we felt a lot of support for our film.”

There was also a connection with the story. “Once we started talking about its themes and what we wanted to portray, a lot of people were interested. With everything that is happening in the world today, it’s a very relevant story.”

Coward is a Belgian-Dutch-French coproduction, built around key partners Lumiere Distribution, Diaphana Distribution and The Match Factory, all of whom were involved in Close.

“It’s quite a big project, but we were able to keep it simple in terms of financing,” Michiel says. “There were no complex structures, and we worked again with partners who have collaborated with us from the beginning.”

A lot of the key creatives were also returning to work with Lukas again, such as Dutch director of photography Frank van den Eeden, French composer Valentin Hadjadj, and writer Angelo Tijssens and editor Alain Dessauvage, both from Flanders. This also made structuring the coproduction simpler.

The Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) was an early supporter of Coward, followed by Belgium’s regional economic funds: Screen Flanders, Screen Brussels and Wallimage. While these players often complement each other, having all three economic funds on board a single project is exceptional.

Meanwhile, with a majority of shooting days in Flanders the production was able to make good use of the Belgian Tax Shelter. And, unusually for a Belgian film, it also added gap financing from a private equity investor.

“The VAF has supported Lukas from the beginning, as a director, and multiple projects from me as a producer, and we are very grateful for that,” Michiel says. That said, everyone was aware that this was a step up for the team. “It’s true, we are a relatively young production company, and we didn’t have all the answers, but there was a lot of trust,” Michiel recalls.

The ambition of the production also helped inspire those working behind the scenes, such as costume designer Isabel Van Renterghem and production designer Eve Martin, both of whom were working on their first period drama.

“Because it was the first time, and the first time for us as well, there was a very good balance between the energy on set and wanting to succeed, in the most positive way,” Michiel says. “No challenge was too big.”