Soleil de juin
Thomas Oussin
Enzo is a 13-year-old, neglected by his mother. Neither morally good nor bad, she cannot live without lovers since her husband’s death. When Enzo, coming home from school, hears her climaxing with her latest pickup, he’s had enough. He leaves his native suburb, and grabs a train to meet his big brother Greg. Since he too has severed his ties with his mother, Greg has lived in a trailer in the midst of an abandoned countryside landfill. He knows exactly what Enzo is going through as he experienced the same pain a few years earlier. He takes him in for a weekend in the new environment he has built for himself, a world without problems or traumas.
Thus, Enzo discovers Greg’s vegetable garden and the simple pleasure of being together. While meeting his friends, he learns the joy of belonging to a group of adults without being judged or ignored, and the bliss of first times. Thanks to Greg, a male role model whose physical beauty he envies, Enzo reveals his hang-ups, his hopes and his impatience to be a “grown-up”. Soleil de juin is a luminous interlude in the country, which explores the twists and turns of adolescence, and beautifully depicts the compromises/sidesteps that are necessary for any wake-up call, with the feeling of an opportunity finally arising, that happiness is there, so close, at our fingertips.