Departure

Rising talent Alex Lawther, the young Alan Turing in THE IMITATION GAME and Bette Midler’s co-star in the forthcoming FREAK SHOW, headlines this alternatively contemplative and sensual drama. Lawther is the shy Elliot who begins to explore his budding gay sexuality when he encounters a tough French teen skinny-dipping while he and his mother are on vacation at their cottage in the South of France. The luminous Juliet Stevenson (TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY, INFAMOUS, THE LETTERS) as Elliot’s emotionally reserved mother Beatrice is equally compelling as she struggles to come to terms with the end of her marriage and having to sell the family’s beloved vacation home. As Elliot’s obsession with the handsome Clement (Phenix Brussard) goes into hyper-drive, his mother tentatively begins to explore a new life for she and her gay son. Writer-director Andrew Steggall makes his feature debut with this sensitively wrought, bittersweet drama – an aesthetic feast for the senses.

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