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In Spilliaert, filmmaker Lisa Spilliaert inquires into her blood relationship with the renowned Belgian artist Léon Spilliaert (1881-1946). Is she predestined to an artist’s life by this kinship, which may or may not be fictional? Is artistry genetically transferred?

She reveals herself as a rapping, fanatical genealogist who probes into the origins of her artistic identity.

Lisa Spilliaert visits archives and museums, painting a picture of the hopeless search for documents and clues concerning her origins. She eventually ends up in the middle of her genealogical fantasies, represented in a ceramic sculptural family tree designed and made by her sister Clara. In Ostend’s Centre for Geneology, the protagonist tries to substantiate her claim of kinship with certificates and registers.

Spilliaert specialist Anne Adriaens-Pannier briefly introduces the historical figure of Léon Spilliaert (1881-1946) and his life in Ostend, his particular personality, his special relationship with the city of Ostend and the sea, his artistry and, of course, his outstanding oeuvre.

A descendant of Léon Spilliaert, who chooses to remain anonymous, relates his memories and his personal relationship to the oeuvre of his great-grandfather. Once again, the question arises of the difference between real memories and retrospectively constructed meaning.

Spilliaert's narrative structure is strung together by a number of rap poems, performed by the Lisa Spilliaert. By choosing this form, she uncovers parallels and contrasts between rap music’s free identity construction and the strictly regulated structure of genealogy.

All these strands culminate in a strange encounter between Lisa and Léon Spilliaert, during which the absurdity of the desires projected onto the past is undermined.