“Red Light” shows “the reality” of the red light district

• Carice Van Houten founded a production company with Halina Reijn.

• Their first series,

  Red Light,

  is available on Arte.tv.

• Meeting with the star of

  Game of Thrones

  at Canneséries, where this thriller on the background of prostitution was awarded.

A dive into the heart of the infamous red light district in Antwerp.

, available in full on Arte.tv, was born from an encounter on the set of Paul Verhoeven's film

in 2006 between Carice Van Houten, the future red priestess, Mélisandre, from

and Halina Reijn.

The two actresses, who became friends, launched their production company, Man Up Film.

In 2019, this female tandem rose to prominence with the prison thriller

, shortlisted for the Oscars.

In 2020, their first series,

, intertwines the destinies of three women, a prostitute (Sylvia Steenhuyzen played by Carice Van Houten), a policewoman (Evi Vercruyssen played by Maaike Neuville) and a soprano (Esther Vinkel played by by Halina Reijn).

A work rewarded at Canneséries by the special and collective interpretation prize and the high school students' prize.

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“ 

is in fact our first project, initiated seven years ago, when we launched our production company”, says Carice Van Houten, with whom

spoke during a round table at Canneseries.

A company born from an awareness: "We had been actresses for a long time and we had the impression of always doing what others told us to do", confides the actress, creator and producer of the series.

“Issues of sexuality, power and female identity”

The idea for Red Light was born in a café, following a walk in the red light district.

"Halina thought it would be a great arena for a series that explored issues of sexuality, power and female identity," explains Carice Van Houten.

If

deals with “women freeing themselves” this project was also a source of empowerment for the two actresses.

“The process was the same.

We had to make our place in a world of men telling us what to do.

In a way, it was a real emancipation,” says Carice Van Houten.

A long journey of seven years to find the necessary funding.

After the #MeToo wave, the two creators also thought carefully about how to represent female bodies on screen.

“Instinctively, we imposed a dogma on ourselves, that of not showing any female nudity.

Obviously, with this arena, it was tricky, but we wanted to avoid reproducing the “gauze male”.

We didn't want a strip club with only size 34 extras, we also wanted large sizes,” explains the designer.

“They bend under the same patriarchal injunctions”

While at the start, everything seems to oppose the three heroines of

, the series strives to show “that they have a lot in common.

Even if they come from very different backgrounds, they bend under the same patriarchal injunctions, such as growing old or being expected to become mothers", summarizes Carice Van Houten,

Sylvia "locked in an abusive relationship of co-dependency is not aware of her own desires", Esther, despite her brilliant career, has become "obsessed with the desire for motherhood, without even knowing if it is her own desire,” Evi “longs to escape her role as mother.

»

Prostitution is certainly at the heart of this thriller against a backdrop of murder with accents of social drama.

Carice Van Houten documented herself with prostitutes, police officers and NGOs fighting against human trafficking to prepare the fiction.

However, there is no question of passing any judgment on sex workers.

“Who am I to judge?

We just wanted to show what's going on.

We do not provide answers, we do not know if it is better to legalize or not.

The situation is too complex,” she says.

And to explain: "We just wanted to show the sordid side of the red light district, not just its Hollywood version", explains Carice Van Houten, who rightly deplores that tourists visit this place "with their children" in the manner of a “Disneyland”.

"It's insane," she concludes.

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