Zeno Graton’s feature film directorial debut The Lost Boys is a heart-warming Queer romance about love in the most unlikely of settings – a juvenile detention centre.
Joe (Khalil Ben Gharbia) is a troubled teenager of Arab heritage who is in the final days of his six months’ incarceration with other young offenders.
Looking forward to a life of managed independence and a new start to life with a welding apprenticeship, his world is turned upside down with the arrival of new inmate William (Julien De Saint Jean).
There is an instant connection between the two and symbolically they communicate in secret via the wall which divides their solitary confinement rooms. Though William seems aggressive, confident and more troubled, he is quite the reverse – shy, introverted,a graphic illustrator but with a fiery temper.
By contrast, Joe seems withdrawn, with an unhappy family past, but finding an outlet through Arab-inspired dance, rapping poetry and his instant devotion to William.
Both actors are totally within the skin of their characters, and Graton captures the claustrophobic life of the centre, with its protective social bonding between the inmates to perfection.
The arc of the story keeps us constantly engaged, and the characters are totally believable and always interesting. This is a story not only of Queer romance – forbidden in this kind of venue – but an exploration of teenage incarceration, of adult nurturing of damaged youth, and of the rigidity of a penal system that can’t cope with what it fails to understand.
As the story reaches a violent and unexpected climax, there is a final equivocal scene which leaves us guessing about the two boys’ future. As one character tells us “freedom has its rules”. It’s a must watch delight.
It’s on cinema release and digital platforms via Peccadillo Pictures from 15 December, but you can catch a screening with Q and A at Brighton’s Komedia on 13 December.
Screening details & tickets for Komedia showing at peccapics.com