Content from VRT

After losing his drug empire, Ferry Bouman has found a measure of peace away from Brabant's criminal underworld — until his past catches up to him.

Sinterklaas is coming to our country again! As is tradition, he will once again give his speech from the balcony of Antwerp City Hall.

Sinterklaas is coming to our country again! As is tradition, he will once again give his speech from the balcony of Antwerp City Hall.

This true, astonishing story describes how King Leopold II of Belgium turned Congo into its private colony between 1885 and 1908. Under his control, Congo became a gulag labor camp of shocking brutality. Leopold posed as the protector of Africans fleeing Arab slave-traders but, in reality, he carved out an empire based on terror to harvest rubber.

Jazz and decolonization are intertwined in a powerful narrative that recounts one of the tensest episodes of the Cold War. In 1960, the UN became the stage for a political earthquake as the struggle for independence in the Congo put the world on high alert. The newly independent nation faced its first coup d'état, orchestrated by Western forces and Belgium, which were reluctant to relinquish control over their resource-rich former colony. The US tried to divert attention by sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to the African continent. In 1961, Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba was brutally assassinated, silencing a key voice in the fight against colonialism; his death was facilitated by Belgian and CIA operatives. Musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach took action, denouncing imperialism and structural racism. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev intensified his criticism of the US, highlighting the racial barriers that characterized American society.

In 1969, the grocery store's son and promising cyclist Eddy Merckx took part in the Tour de France for the first time. He devours the competition and is the first to cross the finish line with a lead of more than seventeen minutes. 'The Cannibal' is born.

Jean is a family man and factory worker who dreams of becoming a songwriter. Pinning his hopes on his teenage daughter, Marva, he takes her to singing contests in which the awkward and overweight girl struggles to belt out a tune. When Jean is suddenly fired because of cut backs, he is ashamed and even more desperate to have his daughter succeed. In a chance meeting Jean kidnaps the most famous pop star in the country and holds her hostage demanding to be heard by the music industry. Catching the attention of the media and the eyes of the nation, Jean and Marva realize that the show must go on until everyone is famous.

It has been 20 years since The Island was unleashed on Flanders. After all these years, fans of the series are rewarded with an exclusive reunion special, in which thirteen original cast members and the creators reunite for a unique look back.

Feature based on the novel with the same name by the Flemish writer Louis Paul Boon. The celebrated author lives in a cul de sac threatened with demolition. He observes his neighbors in their struggle against the threat that leads to selfishness, individualism and resignation. The writer invents a new street that is outside the new world.

In the heart of the Arctic, the Yamal peninsula is the world’s largest gas exploitation zone, a symbol of Russia’s energy hyperpower, which caused the appetite of oil corporations. But the Yamal peninsula is also the ancestral home of the Nenets, who have been pasturing here with their droves for over 200 generations. Every year the nomads undertake a journey of 1500 km. But for how much longer can they survive? Today in Yamal, pastures have given way to gas fields. Growing towns, a railway, an airport, the deep scars on the landscape caused by extraction of gas and oil, and the new nuclear-powered icebreakers, which will create busy shipping lanes in the Arctic, are all changing the local ecosystem. With the industry dramatically modifying the landscape, accelerating the effects of global warming, the Nenets way of life is under threat. The documentary gives a unique insight into a vanishing way of life, enhanced by stunning aerial footage, and rare access to an extraordinary people.

For more than a decade, wildfires of unprecedented force have been devouring our lives, homes and forests at a steady pace. Each year, 350 million hectares of forest go up in smoke, the equivalent of six times the size of France. In the US, the fire season now lasts up to two months longer than a generation ago, and the surface burnt annually has multiplied by three. This film sets out on a gripping journey of investigation from Europe to the US, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia to follow the work of a global team of dedicated firefighters, scientists and fire experts as they investigate why our forests are going up in flames, and act on an unexpected discovery: if we want to save our forests, homes, health and our climate, we need to radically change our attitude towards fire and the way we fight wildfires.

Every day, the Carlingford ferry takes travelers from Northern Ireland to Ireland, a short sea voyage across an invisible border that invites reflection on the consequences of Brexit.

In this Stephen King-like movie about good versus evil, Lien, Sien and Fien Kriegel, unseparable eleven-year-old triplets, set fire to their school. The sisters get arrested and are put away in an institution. Not a regular reformatory but... a paradise. So much better than home. Until the sisters discover that the doctor who runs the places takes away organs and sells them to the highest bidder. Until they find out they're next on his list...

Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (currently Zambia), September 18, 1961. Swedish economist and diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the UN, dies mysteriously in a plane crash. Decades later, Danish journalist and filmmaker Mads Brügger and Swedish researcher Göran Björkdahl investigate the case in search of definitive closure.

In Russia, criticizing the war in Ukraine or Vladimir Putin’s regime has become a crime. Thousands of ordinary citizens are being arrested, tried, and imprisoned. They are called “Politzek”: political prisoners. Filmed clandestinely over the course of more than a year, Politzek gives a platform to those who, despite the fear, continue to speak out against Putin’s repressive Russia. Through the intersecting stories of a teenager sentenced to five years in prison for criticizing the government on social media, a young artist jailed for placing anti-war stickers, a human rights activist, and two theater directors facing Kafkaesque trials, the film unveils the machinery of state repression in Russia. With rare footage, broken yet unyielding voices, this is a story of silenced resistance.

In a drought-struck region in India, suffering from climate change and a high suicide rate amongst farmers, a group of resilient women farmers, who recently lost their husbands, is coming together with a local psychologist to learn counselling and help others in grief.

Set in the flamboyant 1930s, “This is not a murder mystery” reunites world renowned Surrealist artists, including young Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, who find themselves trapped in a lavish mansion with a mysterious serial killer on the loose.

Undercover agents infiltrate a drug kingpin's operation by posing as a couple at the campground where he spends his weekends. Inspired by real events.

Over a tense summer on the Belgian coast, a wealthy friend group faces adulthood's harsh realities while grappling with love and societal expectations.

F.C. De Kampioenen, was a long-running Flemish sitcom chronicling the adventures of a fictional local football team. It aired on the Belgian-Flemish channel één between 1990 and 2011, for 21 seasons with 273 half-hour long episodes, making it one of the most successful comedy programs ever on Belgian television. In 2009 a film had been planned, but has since been cancelled following complaints by the actors about the script. In 2012 the crew announced a new script was written and a movie will be produced. The movie is to be released in December 2013. The series relies heavily on stereotypical characters and farce for its humour. The story is mainly set around a few members of the football club who regularly visit the club canteen before or after a soccer training or match. The canteen is run by Pascale, who is in a relationship with Maurice. The football club is sponsored by the owner of a sausage factory, Balthazar Boma. Next to the field is an antiques shop, owned by the fraudulent Fernand. Most of the episodes are based on misunderstandings or dirty tricks from Fernand.

Flikken was a popular Flemish-Belgian TV series about a police-department located in Ghent. The show started in 1999 and ended recently on 19 April 2009. In the series, a team of six police officers solved various crimes, petty crimes as well as organised crime. The series always aimed at showing the policework in a realistic way - though a little personal drama was never far off. Of all the actors that came along during the ten seasons, only Mark Tijsmans and Ludo Hellinx appeared throughout the entire series. Flikken was produced by the VRT and broadcast on Belgian public channel Eén and TROS in the Netherlands. Flikken is very popular in Belgium and the Netherlands. The show has had very high ratings of up to 1.8 million viewers during the last season. Every year the VRT organises the Flikkendag, a family day where the public can meet the actors of the show. There are many games, demonstrations of the real police and other safety organisations and performances of singers. On 18 April 2009, a special farewell party was organised in Ghent, in which the actors and crew said goodbye to their fans - thousands had assembled to watch the show on stage.

Desperate for funds, Ferry Bouman stumbles upon a golden opportunity when a high-profile bust leaves a vacant position among Brabant's top dealers.

Following a major catastrophe, a new society, Arcadia, is born. Resources have become scarce and a point system, known as the Citizen Score, is introduced. It determines what you can and may do and what a citizen is entitled to.

Kabul, August 14, 2021. The Taliban are at the gates of the city, and France prepares to evacuate its embassy. But the sudden fall of Kabul the next day rushes all the plans. French, Italian, German, American diplomats and the police must improvise the evacuation of hundreds of Afghans and refugees to the airport. While chaos reaches the city, the Afghans will soon have only two choices: to kneel or to run away.

The Bomans, Bastiaens, Verbeeck, and de Grote families must navigate personal and romantic relationships while dealing with the challenges of their daily lives.

The story of a love triangle between a conservative English aristocrat, his mean socialite wife and a young suffragette in the midst of World War I and a Europe on the brink of profound change.

In the turbulent 1980s, friends Marc and Franky, and his sister Vicky, move to Brussels for a career with the Gendarmerie. Soon the three young people are sucked into a spiral of crimes that are attributed to the so-called "Bende van Nijvel" gang.

David (28) moves to Berlin to live with his girlfriend, but she dumps him immediately. Unwilling to give up on his hyper-romantic expectations about friendship, love and paying rent, he decides to stay. Things don't go as planned.

This series takes place at a cutting-edge city hospital. The first season follows Ella, a skilled obstetrician who leads a team of fellow medical professionals. Together, they must perform under immense pressure. The healthcare providers and their patients represent all walks of life and amidst their many triumphs and struggles, laughter and tears occur in equal measure. The thin line between one's personal life and one's professional life becomes increasingly blurred when working such long hours, making conflict unavoidable. But in the end, there is one thing that unites everyone on this parallel hospital-universe: the universal human experience of new life, fragile yet filled with hope and potential.

In this documentary series, interspersed with historical reconstructions, Tom Waes investigates what has happened since the arrival of the first Homo sapiens, on the 14,000 square kilometers that we today call Flanders.

The cum-ex scandal has caused 146 billion euros in losses in several countries. Inspired by true events, two women from Germany and Denmark are trying to put an end to it.