close examination

The pain and vulnerability of coming of age have devastating repercussions in the work of Lukas Dhont. Near, a portrait of the intense friendship of two 13-year-old boys and the great impact of their separation after experiencing homophobia from their peers. His young interpreters are heartbreaking and reveal their sadness: it is difficult to convey such a profound emotion without losing a shred of credibility.

Dhont has always been fascinated by the wars we wage within ourselves, ever since his controversial yet surprising debut in 2018. Lass (about a transgender teenager who aspires to be a dancer). Yet somehow it finds a lightness Nearlike their children they run through the fields of flowers and seek the light every day, even when their worlds are shrouded in darkness.

Eden Dabrine plays Leo with beautiful innocence, while Gustav De Waele’s performance as his best friend Rémi is full of pain and tenderness. Dhont eschews gratuitous onscreen violence, instead relying on his audience to read between the lines and share his sympathy with grieving characters who are all too familiar to him, even if he isn’t 13.

What are you doing Near the splendor is the beauty he finds in such a heartbreaking story. It is present in the visual language of crisp white shirts, poppy red bedrooms and buttery yellow sunshine; in the eternal bonds between mothers and children and in the very rare moments of fragility that we glimpse in fathers. It reminds me of the miracles of Charlotte Wells. after the sun at times, both films feature characters in the casts, who seem to act as the only characters for the broken inner parts of these young people, great examples of the sensitivity to show.

In this acceptance of weakness as something positive, there is somehow a hope that the wounds can heal over time. Some might be reluctant to talk about such tremendous mental strain when it comes to teenagers, but movies like them Near it offers what feels like a lifeline, something to study and enjoy.