Niet Schieten aka Don't Shoot, written by Stijn Coninx and Rik D'Hiet, directed by the former - 9 out of 10

Niet Schieten aka Don't Shoot, written by Stijn Coninx and Rik D'Hiet, directed by the former
9 out of 10


Niet Schieten is a very disturbing, dramatic motion picture, with a story that we find hard to believe could happen in Belgium of all places and yet, incredible as it looks, it is based on real events.

A few gangs of psychopaths have attacked, decades ago, supermarkets, without taking important sums of money, in what seemed absurd, gratuitous acts of barbarism and cruelty.
David Van de Steen was only nine years old when a group of monsters came into a Delhaize supermarket, pointed their guns at him and his family.

His sister, who was only a few years older, shouts at them:

Niet Schieten! Don't shoot, this is my father, as she was close to him.

But the Brabant Killers had no mercy and killed the girl, her father and mother, severely wounding David.
In the small city of Aalst, Albert aka the magnificent Jan Declair, grandfather of David lives with his wife, Metje, right across the street from the Delhaize superstore.

Thus, when the shooting started, he called the police and went down to the scene of the crime, coming across armed gendarmes that stood with their back turned to the horrific incident, without interfering!
This is will be just one of many blunders, terrible negligences, awful incompetences manifested by the police, politicians, officials and people involved in preventing and dealing with such heinous crimes.

As one who had traveled and spent weeks in Belgium, I can attest to a bafflement- on the one hand, this is one of the most civilized, advanced countries and yet, on the other hand, there are aspects that make it an awkward bureaucracy on some levels.
Grandfather Albert speaks about the jokes made on this being Belgium, a place where a jail inmate could still have participated in the killings, because they may have forgotten to lock his cell and th e access to prison.

When the killings in Aast and other places were investigated, the files were sent from one jurisdiction to another, for in Belgium you have the infamous separation and animosity between the Flemish and the Walloon citizens.
The boy would eventually be operated on thirty seven times!

And he would remain disabled!

As for the villains, they may never be apprehended...