Koen De Bouw (right) with the entire adult cast of ‘Twee Zomers’.
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So far, none of the makers or actors of two summers explicitly on the criticism some people express about the One series. It would too easily ignore the suffering of the victims. Koen De Bouw did that on Radio 1 on Thursday. He himself had to deal with abuse: “You can hardly accuse us of not being involved in the content and the way in which the story is told.”
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Jo De Ruyck
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ALSO READ. Rape scene in ‘Two Summers’ sparks debate
That the matter is sensitive for Koen De Bouw (57) became immediately clear on Thursday morning during The winter of, a Radio1 program by Evert Venema. Venema discussed the choice of his roles with Flanders’ top actor and De Bouw said that he didn’t look for it so much, but that the roles found him, “for one reason or another”. Asked why two summers came his way, there was silence for a moment, after which he continued: “I know that very well. But I don’t really want to talk about that.”
A little later in the conversation, De Bouw went into this after all, when the controversy was discussed. According to some, the series showed too much understanding for the perpetrators, because the series is approached too strongly from their point of view. The bone of contention was the scene in which the gang rape explicitly shows how the drunken youngsters alternately watch, film and participate. De Bouw does not agree with the criticism: “No judgment is passed on the perpetrators, they bring that upon themselves, even if that is not the case. (for a TV-watching audience, ed.) maybe a little hard to read.”
Withdrawn from perpetrator
Continuing with the alarmingly high rates of abuse – “30 percent among the boys” – De Bouw said that both actors and actresses had to deal with abuse “from their company”. “Okay, I’ll say it anyway: me too in my younger years. That was a reason to accept this scenario. I have something to say about that too. It’s hard to accuse us of not being involved with the content (from ‘two summers’, red.) and the way the story is told.”
On our question, Koen De Bouw does not wish to elaborate on this, but on Radio 1 he gave this: “Fortunately, 45 years ago I withdrew from the influence of the perpetrator. If you no longer allow the perpetrator to exert any influence on you, you can afford to breathe again and you can tell your story again. You can discuss the way in which and the form in which. That’s a matter of taste. But that it had to be told is certain.”
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