Gustav De Waele and Eden Dambrine in Close (A24)

Belgium’s 2021 best international film Oscar nominee is about two boys who are inseparable friends—until they aren’t. Lukas Dhont’s second feature explores the fallout from the sudden implosion of this bond.

Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustave De Waele) could hardly be tighter. The two race bicycles through the sunny countryside and battle imaginary enemies in a makeshift fort. At 13 or so, they dream of growing up together to support one another’s dreams and talents, and they lie close in adjoining beds during family-approved overnights, watching each other in combined tension and affection.

Doubts begin to disturb the friendship. Shortly after the school year begins, Léo bristles at classmates’ implications that the pair are a gay couple; perhaps his sudden demand for distance from Rémi starts as a boy’s normal instinct toward independence. But a play fight between the boys in the once peaceful bedroom turns into an angry real one. When Léo armors himself up to join the ice hockey team with a hectoring coach, his commitment to machismo is complete. There’s nothing to do but push Rémi away. The rejection sets off a miserable schoolyard confrontation, then a shocking event that will lead to a tragic reckoning.

This film is beautifully shot, moving, and understated. Also uncomfortable at times. The early stage of the duo’s rapport seems almost too loyal and loving, setting off alarm bells of trouble ahead. Dhont is brave for exploring the young people’s budding sexual attraction (and confusion) in the repeated scenes of the prone, pubescent boys warily eyeing each other in a dimly lit bedroom. But the lack of therapy or even much attention for Léo after a major trauma feels puzzling and not quite believable given the sympathetic parents who hover around the edges of the film. The moment one finally tries to make sense of what happened between the boys comes as a relief. 

Close vibrates with grief as raw emotion takes over, welling into a much-needed catharsis. Among the delicate but believable performances by both leads, Eden Dambrine is a standout as Léo, photographed in golden light that puts the boy in an isolated tween space—half nerd, half saint. It’s a lonely place to be, and this film makes you feel the sad solitude that washes over the last child standing when two suddenly become one.