Young Hearts
Anthony Schatteman’s engaging coming-of-age drama from the Netherlands is blessed by an outstanding central performance.
Image courtesy of Peccadillo Pictures.
This is a film which covers no new ground but which from the very start is immensely engaging. It is a first feature by Anthony Schatteman who both wrote and directed it and who has said that in doing so he was consciously creating the kind of film which he would have found welcome and reassuring when he was in his teens. Young Hearts is an upbeat story of first love which shows Elias (Lou Goossens) falling for his new neighbour, Alexander (Marius De Saeger). It is undoubtedly a film that belongs to an already well-established genre of gay filmmaking. But, while it is intended to speak directly and positively to gay audiences, it is also handled in a way that should appeal to non-gay viewers since it portrays youthful emotions with which they can identify as being common to adolescent experience regardless of what sexuality is involved. Back in 1998 the British film Get Real set the pattern and the standard for such a work while 2018's Love, Simon came very close to matching it. Despite being a co-production between Belgium and the Netherlands and thus subtitled, Young Hearts like both of those films is mainstream in its appeal. Even if Schatteman's movie is not quite in their league, audiences who applauded either of those earlier titles will surely warm to it.
The fact that both of the leading characters here are fourteen years old is in line with the titles mentioned and with several other recent pieces dealing with early awareness of sexual feelings. Indeed the 2022 film Close, another co-production between Belgium and the Netherlands but also one involving France, dealt with two thirteen-year-old boys bonding emotionally and was highly praised. However, its somewhat minimalistic approach made it a work that invited one to think of it as arthouse cinema. I myself found it less successful than the Icelandic drama Heartstone (2016) which again studied burgeoning sexual feelings involving two boys, while Céline Sciamma has become a notably sensitive observer of early female adolescence and portrayed a comparable attachment among young girls in her first feature film, Water Lilies (2007). All of these were interesting and worthwhile works which made a mark in their own way, but they have more in common with each other than with Young Hearts. All of them are markedly sincere but, because of the sense of popular appeal being a major factor in their conception, Schatteman’s film is closest to Get Real and Love, Simon.
It could be considered a drawback that this kind of tale has become so familiar that it springs no surprises. The story told in Young Hearts certainly follows a pattern that has been well and truly set. We have Elias not yet conscious of his sexuality and enjoying the company of his nominal girlfriend, Valerie (Saara Rogiers), but then being drawn into a bond that means more when Alexander, a boy of his own age, arrives in Wetteren, East Flanders with his parents. They have come from Brussels and, in addition to moving in next door to Elias, Alexander now attends the same school. There now follows the impact on Elias of becoming friendly with someone who being far more self-aware openly acknowledges that he is gay. By not hiding his sexuality Alexander invites some anti-gay barbs and we see how the feelings that Elias starts to experience cause him to recognise his true self while yet being afraid to let it be known. After all he does not dare to reveal his discovery to either of his parents, Luk (Geert Van Rampelberg) who is a singer/songwriter and Natalie (Emilie De Roo), being unsure how they will react. He is more inclined to confide in his sympathetic grandfather, a widower played by Dirk Van Dijck, whose advice to his grandson is to always follow your heart (a message that is indeed that of Schatteman's film). The doubts and tensions that arise in Elias threaten to drive him away from Alexander but we do, of course, hope that he can get over this phase and that their close relationship can be restored.
Several features ensure that the rather obvious storyline does not hinder one's enjoyment of the film. The fact that Elias's father sings is used to get the film off to a lively start and other songs feature later without being overused. Pieter Van Campe’s photography makes good use of locations and we get variety when the scene briefly switches first to Brussels and then to the Ardennes. Just occasionally the direction is less than ideal (the later scenes are a bit extended and a touch of slow motion near the end comes across as a cliché), but for a first feature Anthony Schatteman's work here is very assured. Most importantly the casting is highly adroit. That certainly applies to the playing of the various members of Elias’s family and Marius De Saeger is very well suited to the role of Alexander. However, the key actor here is young Lou Goossens. The role of Elias is much more of a challenge than that of Alexander because of the emotion involved as he struggles over accepting who he is. Goossens has a natural presence and that helps from the start, but the distinctive feature of his performance lies in the fact that, not least through his subtle facial expressions, he turns the emotional moments (which on paper are the most difficult to pull off effectively) into the scenes which impress the most. It may be that Young Hearts is rather too predictable and that there is a touch of wishful thinking in the way that everything pans out, but the warmth of the piece is always apparent and Lou Goossens in particular is very much a new talent to note.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Lou Goossens, Marius De Saeger, Geert Van Rampelberg, Emilie De Roo, Dirk Van Dijk, Saar Rogiers, Jul Goossens, Ezra Van Dongen, Olivier Englebert, Wim Opbrouck, Florence Hebbelynck.
Dir Anthony Schatteman, Pro Xavier Rombaut, Screenplay Anthony Schatteman, Ph Pieter Van Campe, Pro Des Kato Bulteel, Ed Emiel Nuninga, Music Ruben De Gheselle, Costumes Gudrun Wylleman.
Kwassa Films/Polar Bear/Family Affair Films-Peccadillo Pictures.
99 mins. Belgium/Netherlands. 2024. UK Rel: 8 August 2025. Cert. 12A.
