Ensor: The man behind the mask

James Ensor, one of the most intriguing, talented and idiosyncratic artists our country has ever known, died 75 years ago.

In this documentary, Ostend native Sam Louwyck takes us on a tour of Ensor's birthplace. Experts such as Xavier Tricot, Herwig Todts, Eric Min and Susan Canning help Sam search for the motives of James Baron Ensor.

Who was that mysterious figure with his long white beard and black overcoat that no one really seemed to know and who seemed to get into conflict everywhere?

Artists Dennis Tyfus, Kati Heck and Fred Bervoets try to get inside Ensor's head to understand his phenomenal but erratic and versatile oeuvre. And world-famous artist and admirer Paul McCarthy tries to fathom our Ostend Master face to face with the magnum opus 'The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889' in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

For as grotesque and extreme as his art could be, the story of the man behind the mask is just as fascinating.