Being 17

At a time when so many parts of the world are on the brink of conflict and with the appearance of a new angry American president who seems set on dragging us back to a time of isolation and protectionism, it’s strange to think that a coming of age story of two teenage boys, whose first response to each other is instant hatred, can teach the world a valuable lesson; but Being 17 does just that. This beautifully observed, rite of passage film, is that rare thing, a small, intimate story with a profound, universal message, one very relevant to the world right now.

The film’s central characters, Damien and Tom are both secondary school misfits, living with their respective families in a sleepy, isolated town located at the foot of the Hautes-Pyrénées mountains. Damien’s mother is the town’s local doctor and his father flies military rescue missions for the army. He is academically gifted and very close to his mother, who is often left alone for long stretches because of his father’s work. Although he is shown to be an outstanding student he appears to have few friends. Tom, however, struggles at school largely due to the long, arduous journey he has to make daily to get there. His family is one of the few farming families left in the area. He is equally as close to his family as Damien but being adopted and either bi-racial (or North African) he appears insecure about his place both in the community and his own family. Although the boys come from radically different families they both occupy the lowest rung at school, reserved for those who are considered social outcasts and misfits. Upon meeting, they take an instant dislike to each other. Their animosity manifests in a serious of increasingly violent confrontations in class, in the gym, even in front of the school. Whenever they see each other their first response is to fight. Their relationship could have remained this way, were it not for the fact that Damien’s mother receives an emergency call from Tom to visit his sick mother and on discovering that she has both pneumonia and is also pregnant (after a long history of miscarriages) insists that she attend the local hospital for an extended stay. Aware of the distance Tom travels to school each day, she invites him to come and stay in her home. Both boys are horrified at the suggestion, but both Marianne and Damien’s father, who returns for a brief visit, insist and so they have no choice.

And then the film changes gear as the two boys begin to talk. The fighting doesn’t stop altogether but becomes more ritualistic since they now travel to places in order to fight. It is Damien though, the more emotionally mature of the two boys, who first starts to work out what is really going on and eventually confesses that he’s not sure if he’s into guys or simply into Tom. Tom though is horrified and after an accident where Tom accidentally falls and breaks his arm, Marianne takes him home. But something has changed inside him, since despite rejecting Damien’s advances the two have at least become friends at school. Then tragedy strikes when Damien’s father is killed on a mission and Marianne finds it impossible to cope. Tom returns to help Damien with his mother and the two ever so slowly grow closer and eventually fall in love.

The script written by the director André Téchiné and film director Céline Sciamma makes clear this is not really a coming out story, since it’s left open whether either boy would be interested in any one else of their own sex except each other. It is much more a story about how when forced to spend time together the boys discover they have far more in common than they would ever have imagined. Over time hostility slowly develops into friendship and then in the end it transforms into something wholly unexpected; love. A lesson perhaps to all of us, that once we tear down the emotional walls we build to protect ourselves, we may find something wonderful on the other side.

FΩRMIdea London, 1st February 2017.