I’ve just finished watching “The Out-Laws”. Unlike the title suggests this is not a western but a Belgian comedy drama in Dutch with English subtitles. Available as a DVD, this murder mystery started life as a Flemish TV series called “Clan”.
Created by Malin-Sarah Gozin, and produced by the Belgian production house, Caviar,”Clan” first aired in 2012 on VTM. Kaat Beels and Nathalie Basteyns directed the all-star cast, including Barbara Sarafian, Geert Van Rampelberg, Maaike Neuville, Kristine Van Pellicom, Ruth Becquart en Dirk Roofthooft.
The story
The Outlaws follows the lives and exploits of the five Goethals sisters, the clan of the original title. They have vowed to stick together following the death of their parents and gather together on a regular basis.
As the story begins, one of their husbands, Jean-Claude Delcorps, is dead and an insurance claim on his life has been made.
While the authorities have accepted that there was no foul play, the Dewitt brothers, whose company insured Jean-Claude, are determined to find somebody to blame so they won’t have to pay up. Their suspicion falls on Jean-Claude’s long suffering wife, Goedele, and her four sisters; Veerle, Eva, Bekka and Bibi.
Through a series of flashbacks we learn that Jean-Claude Delcorps, was a cruel, horrible man. He preyed on peoples weakness and made the lives of everyone around him as miserable as possible.
And so Goedele’s sisters decide that, for the good of the family, Jean-Claude has to go. To that end, the sisters come up with a number of ingenious schemes to murder him and make it look like an accident.
However, they soon discover that although planning a murder may be easy, committing one is a whole other story…
And the longer Jean-Claude remains alive, the greater the number of people, not just his in-laws, who want him dead.
The show keeps you guessing to the end, with twists and turns. And with each failed attempt to bump him off, the collateral damage grows.
This is a great mystery with plenty of suspects, loads of motives and a variety of murder weapons attempted.