Bullhead / Rundskop

Like a penned-in animal, Jacky spends his nights pacing naked back and forth in his bathroom. The 30-year-old is a cattle-breeder who lives with his family on a farm in the province of East Flanders. He learned young that cattle hormones and other substances are for injecting. The animal has to grow quicker, be fatter. He is approached one day by an unscrupulous vet who suggests a dubious business proposition from the infamous West Flemish beef merchant De Kuyper. Despite his scepticism, Jacky takes up the offer, but things soon begin to go wrong. A police officer investigating the hormone mafia is found dead and Jacky meets somebody in De Kuyper’s circle who unexpectedly confronts him with his tragic past. Flemish filmmaker Michael Roskam’s feature debut is a crime thriller, drama and tragedy in one. Above all, however, it is an impressive character study of a bull-headed cattle-breeder.