In the 1980s, all of Belgium was under the spell of the Nivelles gang. These criminals roamed the country robbing and murdering. Fodder for a TV series, which can now also be seen in our country. With a Dutch touch…
The eight-part series is titled 1985 the gang’s last year of bloodbath. To this day, the police are in the dark about the group’s identity and motives. The TV story therefore does not fall under the heading true crime but it’s more of a ‘sort of coming of age story’, says protagonist Aimé Claeys. The actor gives shape to the character Franky Verhellen.
gendarmerie
“He is someone who doesn’t really know what he wants. His friend Marc joins the gendarmerie, and he follows. Franky finds himself in a rather stiff, stern world of saluting and heeding. He has his heart in the right place, but still goes in a certain direction.”
Claeys does not want to elaborate on how his character develops because spoilers . “It is about much more than the Nivelles gang. 1985 revolves around three young people who lose their innocence and end up in a world of laws and a spiral of violence. It remains fiction; it is not a documentary with the aim of explaining things that happened at the time.”
Notorious gang
The actor was born more than 10 years after the last achievement of the infamous gang. “I didn’t get anything from it, but I am very interested in history. Perhaps it is a less well-known story in the Netherlands, but the events are still alive in Belgium.”
Through the series, Claeys also became acquainted with the 1980s and associated clothing and attributes. “It was unique to wear costumes from the gendarmerie of that time. They haven’t been worn in decades. There were cars during the shoot that you don’t see anywhere on the road anymore, only in a museum. It wasn’t even that long ago, but it sure seems that way. No mobile phones, but phone booths. You wrote letters and agreed: I’ll see you there and there at 8 p.m. I did listen to a lot of music from the 80s such as The Cure, but the series did not allow me to discover a completely new world in that area.”
Weak
The 1985 protagonist, who previously acted in, among others The Twelve (viewable on Netflix), says she currently has a soft spot for “tormented characters.” “Types that carry some baggage with them. I really like drama. In this series, as I said, I wear such a gendarmerie costume. When I was little, I created whole worlds in my head. Now I play on set. Still with that childhood dream, but as an adult. I can completely lose myself in that.”
He almost stood in court, instead of on stage. “I had doubts about becoming a lawyer. Then you also have to read well and speak in front of an audience. But my parents helped with the choice. They said: you’ll have to study for years later, that’s just blocks, blocks, blocks. And I couldn’t always sit still.”
Claeys, who was born and raised in Flanders, appears to have roots in our country. “My mother is from Oosterhout. And my grandfather, Gerrit Brokx, was the mayor of Tilburg. He said when I was 3 years old: he’s going to be an actor. He just saw that already. My grandfather is gone, but I think he would have been proud of his grandson. I hope I can do this work until the end of days.”
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