Promoted as coming from "the producers of BULLHEAD", THE ARDENNES is exactly that. The feature debut of Robin Pront, THE ARDENNES is an initially intriguing but ultimately uneven mishmash of familial tension (the sequences featuring Viviane de Muynck as the mother are the most entertaining), techno-scored transitional sequences, and slapdash, half-baked action (apart from a throwaway bit with some attacking ostriches) that fails to make interesting or atmospheric use of the titular setting during the third act. When a home invasion goes wrong, Dave (co-writer Jeroen Perceval) leaves his brother Kenny (Kevin Janssens, STORMFORCE) to be caught by the police. Hothead Kenny never says anything about the involvement of Dave or his own girlfriend Sylvie (Veerle Baetens, THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN) in the crime and is sentenced to four years in prison. When he gets out, Kenny is anything but reformed yet does not seem to hold any grudges against his brother (who has gone the straight and narrow) and girlfriend (who has been clean and sober for two years). Unbeknownst to him, however, Sylvie is pregnant with Dave's child and they are looking to settle down. Out of guilt, straight and narrow Dave helps Kenny find a job but his brother cannot stay out of trouble. When Kenny discovers that Sylvie is working at a rave club for Moroccan Khalid (Rachid El Ghazaoui, INFILTRANT), the jealous and xenophobic Kenny kills the other man and then blackmails his brother into helping him transport the body to the Ardennes forest where his former cellmate Stef (Jan Bijvoet, BORGMAN) - along with his crossdressing lover Joyce (Sam Louwyck, EX DRUMMER) - can dismember and dispose of the body. Kenny's destructive (and self-destructive) behavior complicates things even further and Dave finds his resolve to be a better person pushed to the limit as he realizes that there is more than just a woman come between them and that he is just as capable of violence as his brother.