Cheers & Cheerio

Directed by Nahid Shaikh and Kat Steppe

Cheers & Cheerio is a documentary about five old local pubs in the Belgian region of Flanders Fields. These local pubs once attracted whole communities. But Time consumed their clientele one by one, and is about to do the same with their owners: Gisele, Alice, Julien and Lies. The youngest is 75, the eldest 89. Each morning, day after day, they wait, impatiently, for their first customer. All except Lucienne. Her heart faltered, so the pub closed down. Time and the devastating way is eating at the hearts and minds of these protagonists, this is the main theme of the film. Friendship and humour. Loneliness. Perseverance. Clinging to what they once had whilst losing every second of it. Those are the stories. These five local bars and their generation of people will disappear without any doubt. Cheers & Cheerio freezes time, holds it a bit longer and serves it, warm-heartedly.