Hide Your Smiling Faces

A story about growing up – the period of grey between the defined colours of childhood and adulthood – formed carefully with enormous sensitivity and understanding. The world of a group of boys living on the edge of a savage forest is turned upside down by the death of a friend. This event exposes their ordered daily structure to new, increasingly radical emotional stimuli. Their parents are no longer authorities and the world has begun to smell of death. The director abandons carefully crafted dialogues in favour of silence that "speaks". Nonetheless, sound plays a large role in the film – always present, oscillating, emphasising an atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainty. Nothing like discovering slides of the past in the attic reminds you that the taste of childhood – contrary to popular opinion – is above all bitter.