CANNES BREAKOUT 'CLOSE' TELLS OF INNOCENCE AND GRIEF

“Close” is a crushing story of grief told with grace by Belgian director Lukas Dhont. At its heart is a friendship, loving and deep, between two 13-year-old boys, Leo (Eden Dambrine) and Remi (Gustav De Waele), in the countryside.

It is summertime when we meet them, playing and dreaming and out of breath running through fields of colorful flowers and biking on idyllic dirt roads. They are affectionate and sweet. At their frequent sleepovers, Leo delicately blows on Remi’s neck before they close their eyes. He watches Remi with pure adoration as he practices the oboe. One imagines they are not too far away from being more physical with one another, but for now, it’s just pure intimacy.

It’s a beautiful and confusing and sometimes embarrassing moment of life and friendship that girls know all too well, but rarely is this sort of presexual intimacy depicted with boys on screen. By 13, at least in past generations, many boys have already been societally shamed out of such public displays of tenderness with their own gender.