We find with pleasure in Spilliaert the taste for weaving and mixing genres that delighted us in NP (FID 2020). Lisa Spilliaert uses the pretext of an investigation into her possible common roots with Léon Spilliaert, the great master of Belgian symbolism, to interweave in a lively and brief film a portrait of the painter, a sensitive approach to his work and a playful reflection on the notions of heritage and lineage, all punctuated by rap pieces of her own. If rap has been a space for asserting identity since its birth, Lisa Spilliaert seizes it literally and joyfully. The first shot of the film depicts her vigorously, bust-length, surrounded by works, paintings and sculptures, her determined gaze fixed on the camera: she raps. Her words, which strike the air like self-affirmations, are tied to the paintings of the man who shares the same initials and surname with her, while the camera lingers on the motifs dear to the painter. The director interweaves traditional biographical interviews, documentary material—archives and documents produced as part of her genealogical research—and a sensual and detailed approach, through close-ups, of Léon Spilliaert's work as well as his own sister's oblong sculptures. As a counterpoint to the visual marriage of the two pictorial and sculptural materials, a descendant of the painter comments in voiceover on his intimate relationship with his ancestor's work. Genealogists announce their verdict: if the criterion used is genealogical trees, Lisa and Léon are not from the same family. But the heart of the film affirms it: a common core exists, which unites the painter and the filmmaker like two branches stretched out in the same impulse towards art.