I am tempted to not overuse the word masterpiece, but misused though it is I consider this film to live up to the word. For those who can please see this film, and then again I wonder if it had been a heterosexual youth at the centre of the film it would have had wider acclaim here. The trajectory of the fifteen year old is almost as terrible as the young man in ' Sauvage ' except that the sexual scenes are not made explicit. France is not Brazil, and from what I see here of the homophobia, the betrayals and the abuse of one so young it makes me wonder how anybody at the bottom of the pecking order can survive there. I will not give spoilers, except to say with the sudden death of his mother this youth ( innocent and yet forward when he feels love for another youth ) falls into the many traps that a ruthless society inflicts on him. And there is a love story here, and hope could have been there except for the homophobia which seems intrinsically endemic even in large cities. As for the film itself it is in my opinion flawless, and so is the performance from the youth who has been named Socrates. Wisdom indeed and an inner knowledge way beyond his years. Seeing it in the terrible times we are living through I thought of Brazil now and what is happening there now. Any viewing of the film cannot avoid the political background. It goes way beyond in depth many other LGBT films. Why ? To sum up there is so much else in the scenario beyond homosexuality. Along with my familiar favourites of ' Sauvage ' and ' Theo and Hugo ' it is a rare film of extraordinary beauty. If there was a 10+ it would fall into that category.
