Gui and Gijs Polspoel, father and son

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The eldest is 76 years old and, as a journalist, still sticks to non-fiction:especially football and politics. The youngest is 44 years old, loves fictionand is the director of the new Streamz series Money wolves. Gui and GijsPolspoel, father and son.

Matthias M.R. DeclercqNovember 26, 202203:00

Gui

“No, no, no, unfortunately, I don’t have a subscription to Streamz. But I havethe first two episodes of Money wolves premiered at the Kinepolis inAntwerp. I hadn’t seen anything before that. Gijs is not in the habit ofshowing me scenes, I have never been allowed to come on the set as a visitor,but as an extra. (laughs) In front of Save Sonya I acted in a cafe scene.There I was, with his mother-in-law pretending we were talking.

“I cannot look critically at Gijs’ work. Of course I love his series. He makesa lot of non-fiction, like Down the Road , but also feels like a fish inwater when writing and directing fiction. I absolutely do not. I remain thejournalist without imagination who cannot invent a story of his own.

“The humor in his work is something that connects us. Just like RSCAnderlecht: I do have a subscription there, together with my children. We tryto go together as often as possible. The passion for the job alsocharacterizes us: I for journalism, he for TV and film. I told Gijs:’Attention, don’t make the same mistake I made.’ Being so absorbed in yourjob, your passion, has cost me at least one marriage. I divorced Gijs’ motherwhen he was 6 years old. The younger generations are now more concerned withfamily, leisure, holidays and so on.

“Did I have the reflex to be at home more? No actually not. In the 1980s Iworked in the interior editorial office of the VRT and went along with theendless political stories of that time: the Bende van Nijvel, the crises inthe Martens governments, you name it. On Friday there was a cabinet councilmeeting and sometimes I literally said: ‘Maybe I won’t be home until Monday.’

“After the divorce, I sometimes took Gijs and his brother to the editorialoffice on weekends. There they did nothing but race down the hall with theoffice chairs. Other days they went to childcare on the VRT. That whole storyabout the Generale Maatschappij (dismantled Belgian holding company that hadpolitical and social influence for decades, ed.) is another thing: as soon asI started a file, I wouldn’t let go and I wanted to know how it would end, asif it were a TV series.

“Same with Rwanda (where in 1994 a genocide took place, ed.) , that’swhere you just went. Although there was no psychological support afterwards. Istill have nightmares about it sometimes. But I didn’t tell Gijs that. Justlike my grandfather didn’t tell anything about his time in the Westhoek afterthe First World War. He then became a carpenter at the NMBS. It is nodifferent: when I left the VRT, I had 176 days of recuperation. Would I do itdifferently now, as a father? I do not think so. (laughs) I can’t imagine itany other way.

Image Wouter Van Vooren

“We really doubted yes, in the 1970s, the concept of having children. Was thata good idea in an economically turbulent time, with the Club of Rome reportand the slumbering Cold War? In the end we opted for children, and I am veryhappy about that.

“Gijs – wrongly – did not always have it easy at school. Dyslexia was notdiagnosed until he was fourteen. If Gijs had to write a ‘g’, he would firstform everything that came above the line, and then the rest. He understoodeverything, but could not always produce the answers. Therapy helped him,along with the move to art school. This ‘hurdle’ turned out to be a blessing:he ended up with the image, photography and film, and he proves that thatmedium suits him very well.”

Gijs

“The divorce didn’t really mark my childhood. I certainly didn’t have a badchildhood. Due to the circumstances, my brother and I were with our mom duringthe week and only one weekend out of two with our dad. Because of this, Iknocked on my mom’s door earlier in difficult moments.

“Because of my dyslexia it was sometimes difficult at school, yes, but thatdid not overshadow my childhood either. The many tests and therapies showedthat I do not have a dominant hemisphere. I was given headphones that told astory about a bank robbery on the left and someone going to the beach on theright. Someone with a dominant hemisphere will subconsciously prefer one ofthe two stories, making it easier to keep the focus. My brain tries to followthose two stories simultaneously, sending the bank robber to the beach.(laughs) This can be quite tiring at times, but on a movie set, being ableto follow two conversations at the same time can be a huge advantage.

“I don’t blame my dad for the long time he spent working. Would I havepreferred to see him more often as a child? Of course, but oh well, it turnedout the way it turned out. As a child you do not realize that your father isan icon in Wetstraat. A while ago I saw a documentary by Marc Van deLooverbosch ( “The switch of power”, ed.) and recognized my papa with histhick necklace, his neck tapestry and the rolled up sleeves of his suit.(laughs) I saw and recognized the election debates where I ate snacks betweenMartens and Verhofstadt as a child, without realizing who they were.

“It is now difficult for me to explain to my two children what theirgrandfather meant. Their grandfather was ‘the man of the Wetstraat’, was shotat on a truck in Rwanda and talked to President Mobutu in Congo. I saw thatshooting incident The news , when I was 16 years old, and yet I was notworried. To me, that was just my daddy doing his job. It was only later that Ibegan to realize what he has achieved. My dad lived for his work, even onweekends he followed three news programs every evening, those of TF1, BRTN andRTBF. Of course, as a twelve-year-old, I was not looking forward to Sundays_The seventh day_.

“I myself now strive for an appropriate balance between work and private life.That is not always simple. Money wolves counted almost a hundred shootingdays. Over 40 percent of it at night. It happened that in the morning I wentup the stairs, crossing my wife and children who came down. Same for Down theRoad : three weeks away, working 14 hours every day. But after a heavyshooting period, editing follows, and it is often quieter, with more time formy family.

“As a thank you for their support, I secretly process them in series. Mychildren’s names pop up in the generic of Money wolves. Their voices too.They each have a message from the cabin crew voiced in an airplane. Mygrandmother’s obituary card can also be seen in the first episode. No, mydad’s not involved. With his well-known head he would stand out too much.”