So, it looks like there is no such thing as personal space in Belgium, and there is no end of children with snoopy, hoarder tendencies. Apparently, Belgian teenagers spend their spare time rummaging through the draws of their parents and their friends, trying on their clothes, nicking their sketches and stowing away their shaving scraps. I guess there is not much else to do in the arse end of Flanders.

There are also very few options for love.

So it goes with young Pim (Jelle Florizoone) in Bavo Defurne's beautifully rendered feature debut, North Sea, Texas (Noordzee, Texas). He lives with his curvaceous, accordion playing mother, Yvette (wonderfully played by Eva van der Gucht) in a tiny village on the…

Pim (Jelle Florizoone), a courteous dreamer, lives in a quaint Belgian town with his sexually promiscuous mother, Yvette (Eva Van Der Gucht), and her foolish boyfriend, Etienne (Luk Wyns). Feeling contained by his surroundings, Pim starts to fantasise about what life must be like outside his towns limited offerings and about a possible relationship with handsome boy-next-door Gino (Mathias Vergels).

Crafted out of a delicacy and honesty towards emphasising the fragility of an adolescent’s existence and their wide-eyed imagination, North Sea Texas bears with it a hefty ambition – one that, more often than not, is attained with proficiency. The script, co-written by director Bavo Defurne and screenwriter Yves Verbraeken, never aims too high, always staying true to Pim’s personality…

Nu iedereen zowat uitgepraat lijkt over Michael Roskams hormonenthriller 'Rundskop', komt er een nieuwe Vlaamsche film de bioscoopzalen binnen waaien, deinende op de golven van een vervlogen zomerbries. 'Noordzee, Texas', de eerste langspeler van de fel bejubelde kortfilmmaker Bafo Defurne, is een ode aan de summer of love. Vergeet de blinde etikettering en vervallen labels zoals Vlaanderens eerste holebiprent, want 'Noordzee, Texas' dat gebaseerd is op het boek ‘Nooit gaat dit over’ van André Sollie, is gewoon een erg mooie film over de universele liefde: een film over hartenpijn en de smart van het tiener zijn.

Defurne toont zich vanaf de eerste shot als een hyperestheet. De openingsbeelden-bezwangerd van smachtend verlangen en vervuld van een zeldzame broeierige weemoed- nemen je…

So, it looks like there is no such thing as personal space in Belgium, and there is no end of children with snoopy, hoarder tendencies. Apparently, Belgian teenagers spend their spare time rummaging through the draws of their parents and their friends, trying on their clothes, nicking their sketches and stowing away their shaving scraps. I guess there is not much else to do in the arse end of Flanders.

There are also very few options for love.

So it goes with young Pim (Jelle Florizoone) in Bavo Defurne's beautifully rendered feature debut, North Sea, Texas (Noordzee, Texas). He lives with his curvaceous, accordion playing mother, Yvette (wonderfully played by Eva van der Gucht) in a tiny village on the…

Director Bavo Defurne has had a pretty successful career in writing, directing, and producing short films with the kind of active cinematography and intimacy his first feature film North Sea Texas has. Defurne's deep, often unblinking look at his subjects provide us with a truly stark look at their life, and by the end, even if the short was just ten or fifteen minutes long, we achieved an understanding with his characters and his motives became clear. Of course I'm talking about "Campfire," the short he's most regarded for. And let me say, North Sea Texas is no "Campfire."

The story concerns a fourteen-year-old named Pim (Jelle Florizoone), who lives in the West Flemish area of France, circa 1970. His…