Christophe Honoré’s (“Dans Paris”, “Love Songs”, “Man at Bath”) new film is an autobiography, and for the first time brings the director’s story to the big screen.

Lucas (Paul Kircher) is going to a boarding school, far from the small town where his parents live, and has a boyfriend, a fellow student. Lucas has endless joie de vivre and he can’t wait to graduate and join Quentin (Vincent Lacoste), his older brother, in Paris. A sudden tragedy turns Luca’s world upside down and everything he took for granted is suddenly taken from him. Lucas is filled with sadness and despair, lost in his own pain. His mother Isabelle (Juliette Binoche, in a very moving role) doesn’t really know how to help her youngest son. Lucas joins his older brother in Paris, but Quentin is not emotionally available to support his young sibling, and so 17 years old Lucas has to find his own path, looking for solace in the cold wintery Paris, through dating apps and problematic sexual encounters.
Paul Kircher is perfect as Lucas, a blunt young man who cannot express, contain or release the enormous pain he’s carrying. His scenes with Juliette Binoche create intense and heartfelt complexity.
“Winter boy” gives us an intimate glimpse into the world of a teenager on the cusp of adulthood and the journey of that boy to try and find his way back to hope.