The feature debut of British filmmaker Andrew Steggall is a tender coming-of-age story about a young boy realising his sexuality at the same time as his family life is unravelling at the seams.
Alex Lawther (X + Y, The Imitation Game) plays Elliott, a watchful, dreamy teenager who’s meant to be helping his mother Beatrice (Juliet Stevenson) pack up their holiday home in the south of France. Taking breaks and keen to get away from his mother’s uncertain, melancholic presence, he wanders through the leafy woods and picturesque local town and meets a French boy, Clément with whom he becomes friends, and on whom he develops a crush.
Particularly good on the paradoxical distance and closeness, affection and vitriol of family relationships, Steggall shows how both Beatrice and Elliott are full of different, but ultimately similar longings: both searching for purpose, and to be loved. A delicate first feature, with excellent performances from Lawther and Stevenson.