Lukas Dhont would appear to be a young man in a hurry. The 31-year-old Belgian director’s second feature, Close, an affecting, intimate tale of boyhood friendship, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival a year ago. There, the youngest director in the event’s main competition won the Grand Prix, the second place to the Palme D’Or. This year, it was also one of five Oscar nominees for best foreign film, losing out to German World War I epic All Quiet on the Western Front, having harvested festival prizes around the world.
Close follows Dhont’s 2018 debut, Girl, another teenage story, about a young transgender ballerina and inspired by Belgian dancer Nora Monsecour.
It was also widely acclaimed after debuting at Cannes, where it won the Queer Palm, though it also came in for criticism
