The third feature by Athens-based Greek filmmaker Lucas Paleocrassas follows the titular secondary school-aged boy, Yorgos Avgerinos, and his bond with bugs and insects – including two precious crickets, Isabella and Ferdinand, whom he takes around as pets. Bugboy made its first bow in the international competition of the Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival earlier this year – where it collected the Award for Best Greek Film – and has now moved on to the Sarajevo Film Festival’s Documentary Competition, enjoying its regional premiere there.

Much of the context is shared in an expository way: the introverted Yorgos is depicted as having few (human) friends his age owing to his misaligned eyes and his parents’ difficult divorce, which have led to his unconventional love for critters. In the film, Yorgos is typically accompanied by his father, Kostas, who encourages his passion but also tries to guide him more towards what he sees as manly activities: working out and flirting with girls.

The movie begs for slightly more interiority from the teen, as it is difficult to extract more from him than simply his infectious joy about insects. Yet Paleocrassas shows us that there really does seem to be something special in the teen’s way with insects, who all seem quite compelled to stay by his side, rather than hop or fly away. This makes for some undeniably charming sequences, including the crickets hitching a ride on Yorgos’s head as he goes swimming or hanging out with him on the train, or father and son exploring at night for such insects. Audiences are also treated to many beautiful close-up shots of the bugs (courtesy of DoP Carlos Muñoz Gómez-Quintero), who quickly transform from creepy crawlies on screen into treasures, as if seen through Yorgos’s eyes.

The filmmaker manages to expose the tensions of the father-son dynamic with nuance, balancing Kostas’s expectations for Yorgos with the latter’s inescapable passion. However, when Kostas’s wishes for Yorgos to start hanging out with girls his own age are later filmically manifested, it begins to feel like an overly constructed narrative arc superimposed onto the story. Particularly in the last third of the film, personal growth becomes too neatly aligned with a forced maturation as Yorgos moves from insects to female classmates as his pals.

Despite its narrative stumbling blocks, Bugboy is a natural crowd-pleaser: it would be tough to find a documentary of late with more unending charm.

Bugboy is a production by Greece’s Anemon Productions, France’s Flach Film and Denmark’s Toolbox Film. Autlook Filmsales holds the rights to its world sales.