The Lost Boys

Joe is in a young offenders' institution and his release is close. His file is good; he follows the rules, attends the classes and works at looking well to the board. Then William arrives. The new boy fits with nobody, starts fights and sets his own rules. The two are on the same corridor. They start talking; at night through the wall, then in the yard. Something happens between them and there is no place for it in the institution. As Joe's release date approaches what each of them stands to lose becomes clear. Zeno Graton directs; it is his first feature. Khalil Ben Gharbia plays Joe and Julien de Saint Jean plays William; Eye Haïdara is in the cast. It is a Belgian and French co-production. The film screened in the Panorama section at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival. The matter it treats is privacy inside a closed institution; everything is seen and recorded. The narrative does not build the institution as a place of horror; the staff are not ill intentioned and the system still does not work. Poems and letters are used inside the narrative; the two write to each other. The film does not bring violence forward and builds its tension on waiting. The narrative rests on its two young actors and the camera stays close to them. The ending gives no coming together and the choice stays with one side. Its limit is scale; the narrative is small, there is little event, and the pace slow. Who it is for: viewers who like European independent cinema and youth drama. Who it is not for: it is slow, confined, and the ending unresolved.