BOYS WILL BE BOYS

LA PAMPA

2024 / 104 min / color

Teenage best friends Willy (Sayyid El Alami) and Jojo (Amaury Foucher) live in a village in western France; they’ve been fascinated with motocross since childhood. They can’t imagine their lives without each other and they share a dream of escaping their small town. Willy has recently lost his father; his mother has high hopes for him academically and he doesn’t want to let her down. Jojo is under even more pressure, since his dad and his coach both see in him an opportunity to relive their glory days as athletes. But when Willy discovers that there’s something going on between his best friend and their coach, everything changes abruptly. In his feature debut, Antoine Chevrollier skilfully adopts the conventions of coming of age films to tell the story of young masculinity trapped in a dense web of patriarchal norms and restrictions. A pitch-perfect cast plays masterfully with the common tropes of wanting to escape one’s hometown, adding a fresh and original perspective.

• Jerusalem FF – Special Mention