Synopsis
Elias, a boy from the Belgian countryside, forms a friendship with his new neighbor, Alexander, a confident and headstrong boy from Brussels. As the two grow closer, Alexander reveals that he was in love with a boy and asks Elias if he has experienced true love, a question that lingers in his mind.
For the first time, Elias begins to understand the depth of his feelings as he starts to fall in love with Alexander. However, overwhelmed by fear of judgment and rejection, Elias denies his emotions, distancing himself from his friends, family, and Alexander to hide his truth. Consumed by loneliness and regret, Elias struggles with the weight of his decisions.
A heartfelt conversation with his grandfather, who shares a story of his enduring love for his late wife, inspires Elias to confront his fears. Realizing that love is too precious to let slip away, he gathers the courage to reconcile with Alexander, taking a brave step toward embracing his feelings and the possibility of love.
Production
Young Hearts is the debut directing feature film for Anthony Schatteman featuring Lou Goossens and Marius De Saeger in the main roles, with Geert Van Rampelberg, Emilie De Roo, and Dirk Van Dyck playing pivotal supporting roles. [3] The film is produced by Polar Bear, in co-production with the Belgian Kwassa Films and the Dutch Family Affair Films. [4]
The development of the film began in 2019 and spanned four years. Production of the film was first announced by Anthony Schatteman in a Facebook post on 31 May 2022. [5] The production team spent six months scouting suitable filming locations. Open casting calls began on 20 September 2022, focusing on filling the main roles with boys aged 11 to 18. [6] Director Anthony Schatteman, alongside his best friend and the film's Children's Coach, Oliver Roels, reviewed over 1,500 auditions. Marius De Saeger was the first actor cast, as his personality and personal life closely aligned with the character of Alexander. [7] Lou Goossens was later selected for the role of Elias, chosen for his natural connection with De Saeger and the parallels between his personal life and that of the character. [8]
During an interview with Amelia Stevenson for TresA Magazine on August 22, 2025, Goossens detailed the complex challenges he undertook to develop Elias' personality and intense inner struggles. [9]
Filming commenced in August 2023 and was completed over a span of 28 days. [10]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 90% of 21 critics' reviews are positive. [31] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [32]
Aurore Engelen reviewing the film at Berlinale for Cineuropa wrote, "Young Hearts is an authentic coming-of-age tale which enriches the existing body of family films with a wonderful queer love story." [33]
Catherine Bray writing in Variety praised Lou Goossens, for being "naturalistic and able to convey subtle shades of inner turmoil, despite his young age." Praising director Anthony Schatteman for his direction wrote, "his direction feels calm and quietly confident in ways that is not always the case with a debut." Concluding her review she opined, "Young Hearts, while gentler and less obviously tear-jerking, benefits from a sincere and lived-in emotional honesty which serves its aims well." [34]
Beatrice Loayza, writing in The New York Times wrote "Young Hearts is a more wholesome, and ultimately more cliché, endeavor. In the end, teenage brooding gives way to a sparkling fairy tale finale that shows that there was nothing for Elias to worry about, after all." [35]
Sam Wachman, writing for Bright Lights Film Journal , wrote that Schatteman "allows Elias and Alexander to transcend the usual tropes and achieve complete, joyous humanity." He criticized one scene involving a drag queen's performance, writing that "Young Hearts is not the story of Elias's induction into a greater queer culture; it is the story of his love for Alexander." Ultimately, he praised Goossens' acting, writing "...Even when the story strikes a wrong note or takes a turn for the maudlin, Goossens rescues Young Hearts from itself with his stellar, precocious lead performance." [36]
Gary M. Kramer, reviewing the film for Gay City News , lavished praise on the performances of Goossens and De Saeger, writing, "Goossens carries the film, effortlessly, and he is well matched by De Saeger, who is appropriately more relaxed and comfortable in his own skin as Alexander. De Saeger's responses to Elias' discomfort are real, and it creates a real investment for viewers to want the boys to end up together." [37]
Diego Semerene, of Slant Magazine , awarded the film 3 out 4 stars, writing, "Tenderly observed, writer-director Anthony Schatteman's film offers the rare opportunity to indulge in a fantasy where the risks of queer love going public are anodyne, even negligible, while also leaving room for a casual critique of what we could perhaps call Nordic parenting, where children enjoy so much autonomy but are also left to their own devices." [38]
Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com also gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and praised Schatteman's direction, writing, "Schattenman trusts his young leads, often allowing his gentle lens to linger on their faces as new thoughts, feelings, and passions bubble to the surface." [39]
G. Allen Johnson, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle , gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and praised the performance of Goossens as "astonishingly subtle". Writing about the film, he said, "'Young Hearts' is a film that doesn't traffic in big plot twists or dramatic reveals. It's a film that treasures fragile thoughts and feelings, rare in a film these days." [40]
Danny King, reviewing the film for the British Film Institute , found that Elias and Alexander's "too-idyllic scenes together encapsulate both the charms and the limitations of Young Hearts – a movie about the startling power of first love that itself generates few surprises". [41]
