By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Robin Campillo
Starring: Elodie Bouchez | Eloy Pohu | Maksym Slivinskyi | Nathan Japy | Pierfrancesco Favino
Year: 2026
Running time: 102
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32646557
Michael says: “Enzo, a sixteen-year-old boy from a wealthy family in France, becomes dissatisfied with his life of privilege and manifests his teen rebellion by shifting his attention from his education to working on a construction site. There he befriends a pair of Ukranians, wrestling with the idea of going home to help defend their country. Enzo quickly identifies with the two immigrants and begins watching online clips of the struggle in Ukraine. He also develops a serious crush on one of the Ukranians, a charismatic and handsome slightly older young man even as he experiments with dating an attractive young woman. But despite the caring nature of his parents, which Enzo interprets as bourgeois interference with his life, Enzo embraces is sullen teen years with gusto.
“What I loved about the story and direction of this film was the way it dealt with the high drama of teen angst. For Enzo, everything is a major emotional blow, and he responds accordingly, but the film as a whole avoids melodrama, keeping things at a much more realistic level. I could certainly identify with Enzo’s feelings around his teen crush on a straight buy, proclaiming it to be true love. The film was to be Laurent Cantet’s final film, but the director responsible for such strong films as THE WORKSHOP, THE CLASS, HEADING SOUTH, TIME OUT, and HUMAN RESOURCES, died of cancer before he could shoot it. Instead, his longtime collaborator, Robin Campillo (BPM) takes on the directing reins to create a restrained, but highly believable story of coming-of-age and broadening of consciousness. I appreciated the way the film avoided histrionics and focused on compassion and real remotion. 4 cats
“Screened at the Belmont World Film Festival”