Seventeen-year-old Lucas (Paul Kircher) is enjoying his last year at boarding school in beautiful mountainous Chambréy. His life is suddenly derailed when his father dies in a car accident, casting the boy into a state of shock and confusion. Struggling with her own bereavement, his mother, Isabelle (Juliette Binoche), agrees that Lucas spends time in Paris with older brother Quentin (Vincent Lacoste), an artist, to seek perspective on the tumultuous events. Nakedly autobiographical in nature – the film is inspired by Honoré’s memories of his own father’s death – Winter Boy is a deeply moving, yet hard-edged study of grief and teenage self-discovery.
Notes by David O’Mahony.