Lukas Dhont’s gorgeously-shot Cannes prize-winner shows boys navigating the war zone of adolescence. Up for a Best International Feature Oscar, it’s almost certain to lose to Germany’s All Quiet on the Western Front, which is a crying shame (of the two films, Close is unquestionably the more touching and topical).
13 year-olds Rémi and Léo (played by two preternaturally expressive newcomers, Gustave De Waele and Eden Dambrine) are best friends and neighbours in rural Belgium. During sleepovers they cuddle and nuzzle unselfconsciously. Léo (who wouldn’t look out of place in Bambi’s forest) seems the softer of the two.
