‘North Sea Texas:’ An intimate film worth the journey

GLBT cinema is filled with coming-of-age tales, and from director Bavo Defume comes one of the most beautiful entries, Noordzee, Texas. Set in Belgium – not the sprawlin’ and drawlin’ panhandle of the United States – this simple film makes eye candy of its mundane coastal settings. Intimate, sensual and emotionally engaging, every character is used to inform the story of a child becoming a young man.

From the Andre Sollie novel This Is Everlasting (original title Nooit Gaat Dit Over) comes the story of Pim, a self-aware gay youth in the 1960s. Homosexuality doesn’t surprise him, although he is guarded. Played as a young boy by actor Ben Van den Heuvel and ages 15–17 by Jelle Florizoone, the portrayal of child-to-teen feels seamless. Very surprising is the lack of dialogue with which Pim expresses his story, but we’re keenly aware of what he observes and how he reacts.

Pim and his mom Yvette (Eva van der Gucht) live in a rental. Yvette is a former beauty queen whose plush young figure has become doughy, but that doesn’t hinder her from pulling the spotlight in her direction at every opportunity. On a couple of occasions she exhibits maternal tenderness, but it is clear that Yvette is the axis of her own universe around which men orbit. Pim has figured her out and doesn’t seem tilted by dalliances that take her away for days at a time, until she suddenly runs away with a gypsy to join the carnival … literally. (Kudos to Thomas Coumans who plays Zoltan “the Gypsy” with plenty of sex appeal, but not too much).

The center of Pim’s universe is the older neighbor Gino (Mathias Vergels), a handsome young man of 17 who pays Pim enough attention to infatuate and seduce. There is a golden glow about them. Gino dreams that when he turns 18 he will get a motorcycle and Pim can ride with him, he will give Pim his bicycle. When Gino turns 18, everything transpires as promised. Pim loves Gino, and Gino seems to love Pim, too, but bruises the mood on a couple of occasions when he mentions “nobody needs to know.”

Gino’s little sister Sabrina (Nina Marie Kortekaas) is infatuated with Pim. She is very obvious with her interest in him, and none of the energy is returned. Sabrina snoops and finds out more than she wanted to know. Kortekaas is a heartbreaker in this movie, she’s so ready for a crush, but can’t find a suitable object for her affections. While she is smart and rather independent, she seems without close friends or a confidante.

As the film draws to a close, Pim is now the age that Gino was when they started hanging out. Subtly the film makes us aware that Pim still has strong feelings for Gino, but not his bullshit. He is no longer a pliant kid — naïve perhaps; but not stupid.

What North Sea Texas brings to the table are fully-formed characters, an aspect often lacking from films in this subgenre. The boys, the mothers and the little sister are dimensional and important. Even supporting characters are distinguishable from the furniture, quite a feat really.

Everyone who has ever been around adolescents and young adults who are nonverbal and moody will relish this film. It shows what triggers such behaviors. The adults are perplexed, perhaps they are annoyed, most often it seems they barely notice.

There may be complaints that a few of the dramatic exercises are over-the-top; but in my memory, nothing was too histrionic for a 16-year-old gay kid wrestling with feelings of love, betrayal, infatuation, hurt and secrecy. North Sea Texas captures the joy and turmoil without confining the characters to a bubble, and the results are quietly magnificent.

North Sea Texas opens Dec. 21 at the SIE FilmCenter (formerly Denver FilmCenter), 2510 E. Colfax Ave. More info online DenverFilm.org.