Young Hearts

Young Hearts 12+ 

Anthony Schatteman, Belgium, the Netherlands, 2024, 97′, in Dutch and French with Slovene subtitles  

The film shows the transition from the easy everyday life of adolescence to the rapid heartbeat, a symptom of first love. 

Elias is fourteen years old and lives with his family in a small town in the Belgian countryside. After school, he hangs out with his friends and girlfriend Valerie, draws or visits his grandpa. Occasionally, he accompanies his musician father on his trips. The seeming ease and pleasantness of the boy’s everyday is slowly but strongly shaken by confusion and anxiety. The boy is troubled by the feeling that, unlike everyone around him, he does not really know what it means to “be in love”. When his new schoolmate and neighbour Alexander enters the story, it is not only new realisations about his sexual orientation but also answers to numerous romantic questions that drop into Elias’s life.

About the filmmaker: Born in 1989 in Belgium. He graduated from the KASK School of Arts in Ghent, after which he obtained a master’s degree in Film Studies and Visual Culture at the University of Antwerp. In his works, he delves especially in the world of young people and their relationships. His first short film, Kiss Me Softly, was a true festival favourite. Young Hearts, which premiered at Berlinale, is his debut feature.

At first hand: “I hope people will see it as just a love story, a story about falling in love for the first time. About daring to follow your heart and jumping in the deep end. It’s about those overwhelming and scary feelings everyone has known.”- Anthony Schatteman

Text by: Marijana Kuljanac, Kinodvor

With the support of the Flemish Government.