Ethereal and poetic, yet grounded in lived experience, every frame of Éden & Charlie, released by NQV Media, is held aloft by the delicate, intuitive, and emotive performances of Carron and Dewinter, and by the carefully crafted artistic direction of Duvette.
Despite the progress made over the past twenty years, growing up lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans continues to be a lonely experience for many young people. The truth is, there aren’t as many of us out there as you think, and for young people who live in rural areas and small towns, access to other young people who feel like them is often limited. Add to this communities with expectations that don’t fit individual identity, families that assume everyone is straight, and peer pressure to conform, and the feelings of loneliness only increase.
Most LGBTQ+ people will remember the moment the ice broke and they met someone who felt like they did, someone who understood their feelings of loneliness and allowed them to be ‘whole’ without judgment or fear. Maybe it was a fleeting encounter, or the birth of a friendship or love that lasted a lifetime, but no matter the longevity, it was both healing and transformational. Benoît Duvette’s beautiful, poetic, and haunting forty-five-minute short film Éden & Charlie is about that moment we finally connect with someone who understands us, and sunlight streams into our world.
Set to a haunting version of ‘Dido’s Lament’ from composer Jean-Christophe Cheneval from ‘Dido and Aeneas’ by Henry Purcell, Duvette’s film opens with Charlie (Néven Carron) playing a guitar in an empty room of a once-bustling country house somewhere in rural France. Sun streams in through the windows, illuminating the ageing wallpaper, the dusty hardwood floors, and the ornate plasterwork.
It’s a warm day as Charlie sits in his loose shirt and shorts. Yet in his isolation from everything and everyone, there is a coolness in the air, the guitar his only companion in the mid-summer sun. But someone else is nearing the abandoned grandeur of the house —another lonely, lost boy with a passion for photography: Éden (Augustin Dewinter).
As Éden enters the house, he is unaware of Charlie’s presence upstairs as he photographs himself, attempting to get the perfect shot through a timer in a home flooded with sunlight. Charlie sits on the stairs watching the mysterious boy, his eyes full of wonder as he gazes upon his beauty. Should he introduce himself? Is this boy like him? Does this boy carry the same bruises as him? As the summer sun slowly turns golden, Éden and Charlie find each other, and the house becomes a fortress of discovery, as the first sparks of a delicate love offer healing and hope.
Ethereal and poetic yet grounded in lived experience, every frame of Éden & Charlie is held aloft by the delicate, intuitive, and emotive performances of Carron and Dewinter, and by the carefully crafted artistic direction of Duvette. Éden & Charlie is the cinematic equivalent of a gentle summer breeze, washing over your body on a hot day. It’s a film where you know the sun will eventually set on our journey alongside these two boys, as they find themselves and each other. Yet you also know that the eventual sunset does not mark the end but merely the beginning of something new in this hauntingly beautiful portrait of harmony, healing and newfound love.
NQV Media will release Éden & Charlie on digital platforms, including Prime Video, on November 7.
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