Young Hearts: The revelation of a director to follow (critic)

Anthony Schatteman tells a first love story between two boys, with remarkably drawn characters, moving without being cute.

A thunderbolt between two young Belgian boys. A first love with its share of blunders and heart stages not always well mastered … Difficult not to think of Closed by Lukas Dhont in front of the start of this first long of his compatriot Anthony SCHATTEMAN. Especially since these two are long-standing friends in life and have anchored in them since childhood this desire to make cinema that nothing could stop. There was necessarily on paper a risk that this shadow turns out to be overwhelming or in any case that we do not judge this Young Hearts that in the light of this comparison. Wrongly. Because Anthony SCHATTEMAN chooses here a completely different angle to tackle this theme of the first real love at first sight, during this story largely inspired by his own story and that of his loved ones.

In this case the bias to focus on what is happening between these two boys rather than on external elements (climate of ambient homophobia …) which would undermine their relationship, even if these are obviously never erased or denied. Young Hearts So belongs to this family of films that seek the light at the end of the way but without paying into the mièrerie, in particular in the writing of characters rich in contradictions of which Sachatteman never seeks to round the angles artificially. And with a keen sense of the romantic that never denies. A first feature film more than promising

Of Anthony SCHATTEMAN. With Lou Goossens, Marius de Saeger, Geert Van Rampelberg… Duration 1h40. Release on February 19, 2025