01/03/2017 - Belgian filmmaker Kevin Meul takes on a typical social drama scenario where a young man’s world caves in after he commits an irreversible act

In his first feature-length film, My First Highway [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the Belgian director Kevin Meul follows the story of 16 year old Benjamin (Aaron Roggeman). On holiday on a caravan campsite in Spain with his parents and little brother, this apathetic teen drifts aimlessly through life. Neither good looking or particularly charming, and of a spinelessness that is frankly depressing, he appears to have no passion or personality, as if he has always gone with the flow without ever asking himself any questions or taking the slightest bit of initiative. Benjamin’s mediocrity is emblematic of our time where the teenage rebels of days gone by have been replaced by cynical, spoilt wannabees! The famous "Rebel without a cause" played by James Dean, is now no more than a "Rebel without a clue".

That is until the day when Benjamin, without really understanding why, is chatted up by Annabel (Romy Louise Lauwers), a pretty Belgian girl who is the same age as him, who lives in the area, and who is just as bored as him in her summer job working as a shop assistant in her mother’s grocery store. Doe-eyed and slender with the legs of a Hollywood star, this mildly flirtatious and hugely intriguing young woman has come to realise the seductive power she wields over boys, but also the dangers this entails. In fact, a few days before meeting Benjamin, Annabel was raped. Too ashamed to go to the police, she confides in Benjamin. The two of them are convinced that they’re losers even though they’re only 16 years old. Partners in crime, they go wild together: they drink, they dance, they drive fast, drunk at the wheel … but their carefree oblivion (bordering on nihilism) is short-lived. Benjamin, utterly smitten, has no idea of the disaster toward which Annabel is leading him. One night, under false pretences, she forces him to break into her rapist’s house armed with a weapon. A shot is fired by accident. The man falls to the ground. Panicking, Benjamin and Annabel run… The next day, Annabel decides it would be best if they didn’t see each other anymore. 

Produced by Fobic Films (Belgium) and CTM Pictures (the Netherlands) with international sales managed by Premium Films, the film explores the typical social drama scenario of a lost, young man - without the slightest moral fibre or significant intelligence - who sees his world cave in after he commits an irreversible act.  This metaphorical “cold shower” teaches Benjamin that his carefree attitude is his worst enemy, but it also uncovers in him a level of humanity which would have been inconceivable up until this point. Clearly influenced by the austere cinema of the Dardenne brothers (sunny landscape aside), from which he takes up a number of threads, Meul multiplies the number of otherwise anodyne scenes in his film, creating a tense atmosphere and the sensation that things could go wrong at any moment. The filmmaker totally skips over the police investigation, removing any kind of suspense here so as to concentrate fully on the “coming of age” story and on Benjamin’s moral dilemma of whether he should give himself up to the police or not… Which is a shame as it would have been interesting to watch the net slowly close in on Benjamin and/or Annabel. 

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(Translated from French by Michelle Mathery)