At first glance, Moscow, Belgium is misleading. There is the title itself, which refers not to the Russian capital, but to the name of a neighborhood in a working-class town in Belgium. Far from feeling cosmopolitan, the setting is a dour corner of Europe, and the characters we see against it are haggard and unglamorous. The film is also billed as, in part, a comedy, but its situations are serious—and too far to the wrong side of funny to be treated with what feels, at times, like an aspiration to Hollywood’s characteristic triteness.
Combine that direction with a cast resembling a potato puppet show, and you’ve got some interesting angles. Mrs. Potato Head is Matty (Barbara Sarafian), a 41-year-old mother of three, and the film’s backbone in both story and performance. Abandoned by her husband (Johan Heldenbergh) and ensnared by much younger truck driver Johnny (Jurgen Delnaet), who has a history of brutal domestic abuse, Sarafian’s characterization is grounded, if hard to get to.
None of this is powerfully comedic, and when Moscow does show glimpses of humor, they are dark and wry. Its cheesy romantic moments are too disturbing to wring any pleasure out of, too—throughout, there is little to envy. All of this makes Moscow, Belgium gutsy and different, but also contradictory and misleading.