Charly

This second feature by Isild Le Besco is just as frugal in its plot as it is powerful in its impact. Le Besco, who comes from a family of actors and film makers, again cooperates convincingly with her brother Jowan behind the camera and the youngest of the family, Kolia Litscher, playing the role of Nicolas. This 14-year-old adolescent, not particularly brilliant at school and ill at ease with his elderly foster parents, accidentally lays his hands on a play by Wedekind. As bookmark, a postcard is folded into the book. On the front we see the sea at Belle-Ile-en-Mer. In the cheerless life of this solitary, gangling young man, a fierce desire is born. Nicolas, in all regards the personification of an adolescent who is on the brink of his initiation and has no idea who he will become, steals some money and hitchhikes towards the coast. He gets stranded somewhere on the way and meets the young prostitute Charly, who is a couple of years older and only seems to have a more developed identity. Direct, over-organised and bossy, she allows the young kid into her life. Nicolas lacks vision and words, Charly seems to have too many of both. Then together they rehearse the text from the play and a strange writer gives them a new dialogue. This brings Nicolas closer to adulthood, the sea and himself.

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