The latest issue of NECSUS European Journal of Media Studies focuses on the theme ‘Cycles: On circularity and recursivity in media culture‘. Edited by Toni Pape (University of Amsterdam), the special issue brings together contributions that analyse how media culture engages with notions of cyclicality, circularity, and recursivity. Together with Atalya De Cock, Eduard Cuelenaere and Stijn Joye, I also contributed to the issue with the article ‘Rewind, recycle, revive! An investigation into nostalgia-driven sequel and requel practices in small European film industries: The case of Flanders‘.
Our article departs from the observation that in the last decade, nostalgia-driven imitative filmmaking – characterised by requels and ‘belated’ sequels – has become ubiquitous in commercial cinema globally. While the transgenerational appeal of nostalgia in Hollywood has been researched extensively, smaller European film industries like Flanders remain underexplored in this regard. This article investigates how Flemish nostalgia-driven sequels and requels employ transgenerational nostalgia both within the films and in their marketing endeavours.
We focus on three case studies: 1) De Collega’s 2.0 (2018), a requel of late 1970s, early 1980s BRT comedy series De Collega’s (1978-1981); 2) 8eraf! (2021), a belated direct sequel to early 2000s young adult series W817 (1999-2003); 3) Zeppos het Mercatorspoor (2022), a legacyquel to the 1960s BRT children’s series Kapitein Zeppos (1964-1969). Throughout our analysis, we argue that compared to Hollywood’s consistent 1980s nostalgia strategy, Flemish cinema employs nostalgia as a short-term commemorative tactic, celebrating Flemish pop culture artefacts of the recent past instead of the past itself.
Gertjan Willems 