Heiners Filmseiten – North Sea, Texas (en)

North Sea, Texas (Noordzee, Texas)

Original title: Noordzee, Texas

Tragicomedy – Belgium
Production year: 2010
Movie length: 90 minutes

Director: Bavo Defurne
Writer: Bavo Defurne, Yves Verbraeken, André Sollie
Cinematograph: Anton Mertens

Movie description:

Â»North Sea, Texas« is the story of two adolescent boys who fall in love at the Flemish coast in a time that looks like the 1960s, amid little sisters and absent mothers, deep friers and sad cafes. Pim is in wondrous awe of his friend Gino, a couple of years older and with a family Pim wishes he had instead of his own mother, who lives in a faded beauty queen fantasy world with her accordion and revolving boyfriends.
As the years go by, the two boys discover that their attraction goes beyond friendship. Eventually, a sleep over in a tent in the dunes provides the perfect opportunity, as the camera pans away to ocean waves and curtains fluttering in the wind.

Pim lives in a run-down house in a dead-end street somewhere at the Belgian coast, together with his mother Yvette. Life here smells of cold French fries, cheap cigarettes, vermouth and stale beer. Mother Yvette uses her fat Etienne with his lousy grey Fiat as a driver for the nights she has to »performÂ«.
As a kid Pim dreams of a better life, imagining princesses and beauty queens. But when Pim turns 16 he dreams of Gino, the boy next door, instead. Ever since they were children there has been this tension between them. Now Gino is Pim’s motorcycling hero. Cold mockery, little humiliations and tiny bits of hope make up Pim’s life. No wonder he sometimes flees to his dream world.
Then one day Yvette leaves with young, hunky Zoltan, the boy from the fair. When Yvette leaves her son alone in the empty house, Pim seizes the opportunity and his dreams become half-truths. Pim moves to the neighbours’ house to live with Marcella, his »second mumÂ«. And with Sabrina, Gino’s sister, who circles longingly around Pim. He even sleeps in Gino’s bed! But Gino’s off romancing and living with a girl from across the border.
Dreams never come true. Or do they? On a rainy day Gino returns.

Boy Actors