FOR A LOST SOLDIER is a film that could only have been made outside the United States. A tale of inter-generational love told without any judgments or commentary, the movie offers the truth of such a love story without taking the filmmaker or his actors to task.
I myself had a brief affair with a young man (about nineteen) when I was fifteen. I pursued him; not the other way around. And this movie shows clearly in a few scenes that young Jeroen is pursuing Walt; he's fallen in love with him and despite the fear that engenders in the boy, he pursues the older boy (Walt is really barely out of adolescence himself, as were many soldiers in the War) with a determination that is quite impossible to describe or to ignore.
Unfortunately the affair ends abruptly when the Liberators leave the country. Jeroen is heartbroken and tries for quite some time to find his lost soldier, but in the end he has to face the truth: Walt is gone.
There is something quietly devastating about this simple, quiet tale of love between two boys separated by years and language. It would be easy to label Walt a sexual predator but I know more about this sort of thing than most people; not only does he not pursue or "groom" Jeroen, but when he says "I love you" to the boy, it sounds like the God's truth.
An achingly beautiful film that rewards multiple viewings.
I myself had a brief affair with a young man (about nineteen) when I was fifteen. I pursued him; not the other way around. And this movie shows clearly in a few scenes that young Jeroen is pursuing Walt; he's fallen in love with him and despite the fear that engenders in the boy, he pursues the older boy (Walt is really barely out of adolescence himself, as were many soldiers in the War) with a determination that is quite impossible to describe or to ignore.
Unfortunately the affair ends abruptly when the Liberators leave the country. Jeroen is heartbroken and tries for quite some time to find his lost soldier, but in the end he has to face the truth: Walt is gone.
There is something quietly devastating about this simple, quiet tale of love between two boys separated by years and language. It would be easy to label Walt a sexual predator but I know more about this sort of thing than most people; not only does he not pursue or "groom" Jeroen, but when he says "I love you" to the boy, it sounds like the God's truth.
An achingly beautiful film that rewards multiple viewings.