The Demons (Les Demons) (Philippe Lesage, 2015): Canada

Philippe Lesage a French director and writer of his first motion picture, shares this story based on true events about boy that is welcomed to the adult life very prematurely. This story takes place in Canada, and it is about a family with issues. Dad works a lot, he is hardly home and the mother is left to take care of the three kids by herself. Felix, their youngest kid is seen at school, as a very quiet boy who develops a crush on his gym teacher. Felix has hit the tricky age where most adults still presume carefree innocence, but in fact has just enough knowledge of the adult world to make him worried about almost everything. Half of the film is seen through his eyes and the viewer begins to experience the world of The Demons in the same way.

Felix is mainly fearful that his parents, Claire (Pascale Bussieres) and Marc (Laurent Lucas) will break up. He watches his dad bonding with his best friend’s mother one late night this grows suspicious in his mind, but afraid of the outcome, he keeps it to himself and decides to release his anger through bullying one of his classmates in the pool. For Lesage, the swimming pool which is the focus of so much of The Demons is a place of joy, of danger, of eroticism and of much else. Once we were able to identify the climax, Lesage starts with a half down shot of Ben (Pier-Luc Funk) the lifeguard, picking up little boy’s shorts and pocketing it. At this point, we notice the story may revolve around Ben including Felix but we are not sure.

Life itself is difficult for adults to handle, let alone a 10 year old boy that is still curious about what “sex” is and how AIDS is transmitted. Lesage shares the easiness of a kid to adapt to the real world problems that may cause unnecessary insecurities that force us to quickly grow up.