San Sebastian to Close With ‘Le Faux Soir,’ About Media Hack in Nazi-Occupied Belgium
Belgian filmmaker Michaël R. Roskam will return to the San Sebastián Film Festival to close the official selection of the 74th edition of the Spanish festival in an out-of-competition with Le Faux Soir, which will gets its European premiere following its world premiere at Toronto 2026.
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The movie “recreates one of the most curious episodes of the Belgian resistance movement during the Second World War, a clandestine operation that turned the press into a weapon against the Nazi occupiers,” according to a synopsis.
With The Drop (2014), starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and James Gandolfini, the filmmaker won the jury prize for best screenplay at San Sebastian.
Based on the book Le “Faux” Soir, 9 novembre 1943 by Marie Istas, the cast of the new film features Arieh Worthalter, Mélanie Thierry, Karim Leklou, Mara Taquin, Bouli Lanners, Julien Frison and François Damiens, among others. The story is set in 1943, when, having occupied Belgium, the Nazis turn the national newspaper Le Soir into their propaganda tool. “To raise the spirits of the Belgian people, a group of resistance fighters comes up with a wild idea, to print a fake edition of the newspaper mocking the occupier in what some historians consider to be the first-ever media hack,” reads the synopsis.
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Le Faux Soir is a Belgian-French co-production.
Roskam, who worked as a journalist for the Dutch-language newspaper De Morgen, made his feature film debut with Bullhead (2011). In 2021, he directed the first three episodes of the miniseries Black Bird, starring Taron Egerton, which received Emmy and Golden Globe award nominations.
Earlier this week, the Spanish festival unveiled Fatih Akin’s Ghost Song as its 2026 opening film. The 73rd edition of the San Sebastian festival takes place Sept. 18-26.
