Madame Edouard
Michel Blanc
Didier Bourdon
Josiane Balasko
Dominique Lavanant
Annie Cordy
Rufus
DOP: Luc Drillon
Editor : Jacques Raybaut
Sound : Didier Codoul
Perchman : Philippe Kohn
Make up: Katja Reinert
Costume design : Cynthia Dumont
The corpses of several young women are found in Brussels, buried behind the graves of famous painters… The right forearm of each corpse is missing.
Bringing together the threads, Inspector Léon, who has a secret passion for knitting, slowly unravels this strange case. At the centre of the story is Madame Edward, the transvestite cleaning lady at a bar frequented by an array of madcap eccentrics, the "Sudden Death" (Sudden Death is a Belgian beer — la Mort Subite).
All these comical and humane characters live in a baroque and slightly crazy world tinged with black humour, rooted in the off-key reality of Belgium.
From this point of view, the Marolles neighbourhood is a unique setting where one can still find "real" people. Like parts of Montmartre in Paris. The same people, with the same slight craziness. However, they are more colourful here because Belgium has something special: a form of humour and tenderness innate to these Northerners who, because the sun rarely shines outside, have put all its warmth in their hearts. A mystery too, locked in Magritte’s "Pandora’s box"… and a lust for life that ranges from Brel to Arno, borne by the last barflies who ponder their dreams at five in the morning, over a "Mort Subite" after missing the last tram home.