I cried too throughout this film, but above all I felt angry. Lukas Dhont is an exceptionally good director, and he trod delicately over very sensitive subject matter. Eden Dambrine as Leo the thirteen-year-old has received well deserved praise for his acting, but then so should Gustav de Waele as Remi the youth who depends upon Leo's love, and yes let us call it by its name. Friendship there is as in all true loving but loving it is and due to crass homophobic remarks at school disaster strikes, and things are never the same again. Who was really responsible for the disaster? I think all of us as we are all afraid of this kind of loving and more often than not persecute it. Are we all murderers of the heart that has so many ways of feeling, so many forms that we wish harm upon even unconsciously? There is a stare at us from Leo and I will not spoil it for viewers when it comes. It is harsh, bitter and accusing, and despite its despair defiant. He looks at us the audience and even I winced away. This is a great film, and maybe I have overused this word too often, but from the depths of me I believe it ranks as one of the finest films I have ever seen. I must also mention Remi's mother played to nuanced perfection by Emilie Dequenne. A lot of very fine films come out of Belgium, but this one cuts to the bone of our communal responsibility in seeing love for what it is, and to refuse macho standards as seen by the sport thrusts that intercut various tender scenes. Homophobia in sport is commonplace, and there again it is another murdering ground for the sensitive and different. This is my opinion of this masterpiece, and I hope I have not misinterpreted Lukas Dhont's intentions. To sum up I have not seen a film about the tender birth of loving so delicately portrayed and acted with such burning grief and joy.

Thirteen year old "Léo" (Eden Dambrine) and his schoolfriend "Rémi" (Gustav De Waele) are inseparable. The play together, eat together, sleep together - an ideal fraternal relationship. At school, though, their classmates start to make disparaging remarks about them, and the naturally more gregarious "Léo" begins to shun his friend a little, then a little more... Tragedy ensues after "Rémi" doesn't show up for a school trip and the repercussions hit the young "Léo" and "Sophie" (Émilie Dequenne) - the mother of his friend - especially hard. On one level this film is about cruelty. Not a deliberate, malevolent style of cruelty - but one of indifference, of ignorance - a bully's sort of cruelty. On another it is a story of love, loyalty - betrayal even. It is an highly emotional film with two excellent performances from the young boys conveying their respective responses to a bewildering array of suspicion and judgements being thrust their way by those who knew no better - but should have. It's about parenting, about openness and about how people deal with tragedy in their own, personal way - and it is very effective. It really does leave a lump in your throat afterwards. Well worth a watch.

Normally I don't go to this kind of flicks but it has been said that this Belgian entry for the Oscars could win. So on a rainy night in a foreign city I went to see it at a very small venue.

The title says exactly what you get. A story about two teenage friends getting close somehow in their friendship and people do ask themselve if they are in love. But not only that is close. The way it was shot also brings you close to the characters.

I can tell without spoiling that at the end of this flick I heard a lot of crying at the venue. Why? Because most people do recognise thelselve in the storyline.

Excellent performances by the teenagers knowing that they weren't actors at all.

Okay, I agrre, Belgium is on the road for an Oscar.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 0/5 Story 3,5/5 Comedy 0/5.