Taxandria (1994)

" In Taxandria, a totalitarian regime has forbidden time: time watched have been confiscated, photo cameras are illegal as they freeze a point in time. A typical Servais theme: a power is oppressed by a constraint that denies what is best in the individual, and therefor has to be twisted in various ways, to establish an entirely artificial world, that has rules that may question some of the rules of our world at this side of the mirror. The digital era has begun. "Servaisgraphy" threatens to become obsolete. It was finally only to be used for the fabric of the backgrounds and no longer for the encrustation. The film's traditional approach and the fact that it no longer holds pace with technological changes displeases the partners, who want to make it a live action film with special effects. An ultimate re-writing finally integrates a series of live action scenes: a scriptwriter is commissioned to write passages made to measure with the sequences that were already made. The final film disappoints. The 'critics' reaction to the first public screening at the Ghent Film Festival, with a print which is no final cut yet, is very moderate. The box office results are poor. Yet, the film enjoys an amount of success at festivals specialized in fantastic cinema. In Porto and Rome, "Taxandria" even wins major prizes. "

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