North Sea Texas
Dir: Bavo Defurne
18:30 / 20.45 NFT1 • Belgium: 96 min • Indeed Films • 2011
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North Sea Texas, a small town coming-of-age story from Belgian director Bavo Defurne, has been chosen as the Closing Gala film at the BFI’s 26th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. Defurne is the acclaimed director of shorts such as Campfire, Saint and Sailor, garnering awards from festivals around the world, and this is his debut feature.

Pim is just about to turn fifteen and is in love with his best friend and boy next door, Gino. Pim’s mother is a former beauty queen turned local good time girl accordianist who dreams of far off places and to be free of all ties. To her, Pim is a strange boy who, she complains, barely speaks and never shows her the drawings he spends hours making. This is because drawing is where Pim articulates his secret, and not so secret, desires.

Jelle Florizoone’s performance as Pim is restrained and assured, and he is the film’s palpitating heart. It’s important that the audience care about this adolescent boy’s emotional highs and lows, as he experiences love, sex, heartbreak and loss, and Florizoone is able to do more with just a look than many experienced and more mature actors.

Despite the troubles Pim faces, North Sea Texas is a decidedly romantic film. Defurne says, “I don’t want to show people what they see when they look out their windows. I want to show what they can see when they close their eyes.” So this is a film that plays on our dreams, our fantasies, and in that sense, despite its grim seaside setting, North Sea Texas is a wish-fulfiment of what teenage love can be like. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons it’s been chosen to close the festival, because ultimately it offers a more positive vision of the gay life to come.