At a sports boarding school, talented young boxer Camille narrowly survives a fatal accident, saved by his best friend Matteo. After a swift recovery, an inexplicable pain gradually takes hold of him, threatening his dreams of greatness and his relationship with the team. In the ring and in a man’s world, there’s no room for weakness.
Winner: Cannes Film Festival 2025 Directors’ Fortnight Europa Cinema Label for best European Film and the SACD Coup de Coeur’s Award
The Garden Cinema View:
Valéry Carnoy is yet another Belgian director - alongside the Dardenne Brothers, Lukas Dhont, and Anthony Schatteman - who delivers sensitive, teenage, social realist, coming-of-age dramas.
When the most talented boxer in a group of teenage boys suffers an injury, it sends him spiralling into helplessness and self-doubt - but it also forces him to reckon with issues of identity, friendship, and the world beyond the narrow focus required for competitive sport. Carnoy, who also wrote the screenplay, skilfully the sports boarding school setting as a pretext for exploring invisible trauma, toxic masculinity, but also the deep bonds of male camaraderie.
