“Schatteman does show he can direct the emotional beats to perfection.”
Berlin’s Generation sidebar has its focus on youth films that, as their mission statement says, ‘take young people seriously’. The section is divided into Generation Kplus, which features films dealing with the trials and tribulations of the youngest generation, and Generation 14plus, which focuses on protagonists in their mid- to late-teens. It is somewhat ironic that Anthony Schatteman’s Young Hearts is part of the Kplus section; its protagonist is a 14-year-old, but he definitely looks younger. The film itself mirrors this: it is confidently directed, but at the same time too simple to make a lasting impression. A coming-of-age story about the sexual awakening of a teenage boy, the film stays well within the confines of the genre and neatly ties up the narrative into a happily-ever-after conclusion after following a road where the main conflict takes up little of its 90-minute runtime. Despite a revelatory lead performance, Young Hearts simply plays it too safe to make a dent with audiences outside the target age range.
Elias (Lou Goossens) lives an unassuming and happy life in the Flemish countryside: a stable home situation with a father (Geert Van Rampelberg) who is at the start of a successful singing career, a doting grandpa (Dirk van Dijck) on whose farm he helps out with chores, a large group of friends, and his steady girlfriend Valerie (Saar Rogiers). That safe and pleasant world is shaken up when a new neighbour of the same age arrives. Alexander (Marius De Saeger) is much more confident than the quiet and innocent Elias, and they become fast friends. Discussing Elias’ father’s nascent hit single about first love, he asks Alexander if he has ever been in love. After Alexander openly tells him that it was with a boy, Elias doesn’t really know what to say when his friend counters the question. Is he in love with Valerie? But then what is it that he is feeling for Alexander, basically since the moment he laid eyes on the boy? Surrounded by adolescent homophobia, Elias has to fight an inner battle to find out who he is, and if he can be as open about it as his object of desire.
Inevitably Young Hearts will be compared to a number of recent, prominent films about (pre)adolescent boys with queer feelings. Lukas Dhont’s Close and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster are easy comparison points, although both are more ambiguous about the true nature of the friendships they portray (in other words: you can read non-queer thematics in them) than Young Hearts. What sets them apart from Schatteman’s film though is the depth with which the topics are examined. Young Hearts mostly stays on the surface, and though an internal battle of feelings is hard to verbalize, and young Goossens does an excellent job of externalizing it in his performance, he is given too little room to express how much of a struggle it is for Elias. Especially because the boy is such a closed book, it takes almost an hour before a real outburst of emotional pain comes to the surface; one which is brushed over rather quickly by one heart-to-heart with an adult, after which we rapidly hurl towards an ending in which everybody, from Valerie to Elias’ brother and from his father to his friends, accepts his newfound sexuality without even a hint of doubt or negativity. Good for Elias, but too neatly folded into an ‘everybody’s happy’ scenario.
Schatteman does show he can direct the emotional beats to perfection though. Otherwise reliant on one too many scene-transitions accompanied by sad piano music, Elias’ coming-out is a devastatingly beautiful scene in which Goossens gives the actors in the previously mentioned bigger titles a run for their money. Likewise, a drag queen’s heartfelt rendition of Sandra Kim’s Eurovision-winning J’aime la vie in a Brussels bar is a tad maudlin but totally fitting for that moment in Elias’ trajectory. In these moments the talent shows, but Schatteman is ultimately let down by a screenplay that seems hellbent on nipping any hint of conflict in the bud. Schematic and with genre tropes galore, there is a flatness that no direction or acting can truly overcome. That probably won’t bother a younger audience, but more discerning ones will know there are better versions of this story.
Image copyright: Thomas Nolf