Langer licht

A sweltering, hot yet terrifying summer in North Amsterdam. Lucien (Raymond Thiry) runs a boxing school and, after a tragic accident, he is no longer able to look after his 15-year-old son, Mitchell (Dai Carter). Lucien now lives for his boxing school and his pupils. In an unforgettably painful scene, Mitchell tries in vain to make contact with his father at his own birthday party. Lucien no longer has himself under control and allows everything that is worth anything to him to slip out of his fingers. He withdraws and leaves his pupils and his son in the lurch. It's only when he is able to stare his own sorrow in the eye that he finds a way to pick up life where he left off. In his powerful feature début, Lammers allows the sweltering heat, in an emotional sense, to drop to a Siberian freeze and reveals himself to be a sharp observer of both human suffering and the big-city drabness of North Amsterdam. A painful film that stands comparison with the work of the award-winning Dardenne Brothers. (SdH)