0"Le paradis (The Lost Boys)" is the feature debut of the Belgian director Zeno Graton, which premiered at the Berlinale 2023 in the Generation 14+ section. It's a rainy morning in Berlin when he and his two leading actors, Khalil Gharbia (Joe) and Julien de Saint Jean (William), enter the press lounge of the Berlinale Palace.
Freie Generationen Reporter:innen: Mr. Graton, what is freedom to you?
Zeno Graton (Director): Well, the thing about freedom, I tried to portray was, a form of freedom that is not linked to the physical freedom. Joe (Khalil Gharbia) for example, is going to get released, live in his own apartment, have his own job, but that is not freedom to him.
He is looking for something else. He looks for a bond and what I tried to convey with this movie, was that only love can create freedom.
FGR: So, is that where juvenile detention fails?
Graton: I would say it is the whole system that fails. They are deprived of their physical freedom, put in a cell, and don’t get to see their parents very often. And then there is also this discrimination that is put on them, when they try to apply for schools or jobs, and this constant insecurity of what happens next.
Khalil Gharbia (Joe): For me, the paradox thing about freedom is really what the probation judge said at one point in the film. You can only find freedom within a frame. While filming, I developed this almost claustrophobic feeling in my head. It was like Joe was imprisoned in his own mind.
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FGR: Joe and William find this freedom of mind in their close relationship with each other. Emotionally intimate friend- and relationships between men are still stigmatized in our society. How did you try to portray masculinity?
Julien de Saint Jean (William): It’s funny that you ask. When we just arrived at the Berlinale Palace with all the boys of the cast, I really felt like we had become a family. I think that might be because Zenon casted all of us for our very different expressions of masculinity.
Graton: Yes, but I also wanted to portray tenderness within a group of boys. The relationship between Joe and William really echoes within the group. We wanted to show, how it could spread out to the group and create this sense of solidarity, almost as within a family, and not competition.
FGR: Do you think this story of two men, feeling imprisoned by their surroundings and finding freedom in their relationship, could be told outside a prison as well?
Graton: I mean, every film is different, and this one would have been completely different as well if we had told it in another way. The film was very much inspired by the works of Jean Genet, a French writer, who was closely connected to the revolutionary struggles in the sixties and seventies and spent a lot of time in prison. He wrote many books about love in prison, so yeah, the motive of a prison-love-story was present from the beginning on.
De Saint Jean: I also think that this story is more universal, love is more universal. It could be a story about two girls as well. For me, it is more about prison and society.
Gharbia: At the same time, masculinity can of course be a form of imprisonment. But I think we are currently seeing a transformation process in society. I hope that we can participate in this process with our movie.
He looked me dead in the eye and then just left. You must be intimidated, in order to learn to rules.
FGR: As actors, how did you feel portraying young adults of your age growing up under such different and difficult circumstances?
Gharbia: From the beginning on, I felt a responsibility to the real teenagers in prison. I mean, we were filming in a real prison, down the hall from them. Zenon had the great idea of bringing us together while preparing for our roles. And we really got into talking.
FGR: What was that experience like for you?
Gharbia: I was looking for permission from them to portray their situation. And once I felt like I had it, I was like okay, now I can really get started and bring my own personality into the character.
Graton: In the beginning, the educator though you were the new kids, right?
Gharbia: Yeah, and I went along with it. I played a joke on the kids, and they asked me “What are you here for” and I was like “Nah, I am not going to tell you”. Even if it was just for a short moment, it was interesting to see how everyone treated me.
FGR: How did they treat you?
Gharbia: At first, when I arrived, an educator just came up to me. And he had this really intimidating behavior because that’s just how things are there. When you are new, you must be intimidated in order to learn the rules and not get rebellious. So, he looked me dead in the eye and then just left. The moment he found out I was the actor, he came back to me and was like okay, let’s start over. It was only five seconds, but I think those are the kind of things that just stay in your subconsciousness.
FGR: Do you think that toughness is necessary for juvenile detention to work?
Graton: What I saw, was that even though they are tough sometimes, it is a hundred percent to help the kids. They have good will, but can only act within a system that doesn’t work and doesn’t allow them to fulfil their job.
FGR: How can film have an impact on systems like these? What kind of change did you try to push for with your movie?
Graton: That’s interesting. We had a discussion yesterday with our biggest donator and I told him, let’s organize a debate between the people in power and the people within the facilities. Have them watch the movie. He liked the idea.
You know, in Holland, in Québec, places like this don’t exist anymore. They were turned into social houses, like 10 years ago, connected to social areas, from schools, where the kids have families.
I think the important thing to always keep in mind is, that every kid has a bright aspect in life, that they might be disconnected to, when they enter the facility. But we can bring back this aspect, whether it’s their favorite sport, their friends, their parents or really anything.
If you want to hear our thoughts on "Le paradis" as a movie, you can find Clara's review here.
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