The Giants

Films seldom capture the quicksilver highs and lows of being young half as well as this light-touch Belgian drama. Like a fairytale, it deposits a trio of neglected teen boys deep in the woods to fend for themselves. Two of them are brothers, 15-year-old Seth (Martin Nissen) and 13-year-old Zak (Zacharie Chasseriaud), whose mum has left them alone in their late granddad’s house. Their friend Danny (Paul Bartel) has his own problems – chiefly a knuckle-headed psychotic brother. At first the boys revel in the idleness of a long, free summer, tearing about in a clapped-out banger, smoking weed. But soon they’re broke and with faltering bravado negotiate with a drug dealer who wants to use their house as a marijuana farm – and turfs them out without a penny. Artist turned director Bouli Lanners paints his story a little hazily, perhaps, but his gorgeously unselfconscious actors are faultless.