For a Lost Soldier Movie Review

For a Lost Soldier was San Jose's opening night selection at the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in 1993. It arrived with an impressive award from a festival in Turin. A grownup choreographer (Jeroen Krabbe) reminisces about those good old World War II days when he was a boy of 12 or so and had a fling with a grown-up soldier. Their fairly explicit romps in bed are shown as warm and cozy, and we never see what happens to the child between the end of their affair and his well-established adult life. (It may have been in the original Dutch book, but it isn't onscreen.) Other short films at the festival that year were much more honest; several focused on how their protagonists are completely bewildered by conflicting emotions about sex and tormented by a fear of being abandoned as a result of the choices they make. For grown-ups to convince themselves that very young children recover quickly from intense emotional experiences may be convenient for them, but the reality for the kids is much different. The unreal romantic lushness of For a Lost Soldier, therefore, makes it an ideal advert and/or propaganda for the North American Man/Boy Love Association. AKA: Voor een Verloren Soldaat.

1993 92m/C NL Marten Smit, Andrew Kelley, Jeroen Krabbe, Feark Smink, Elsje de Wijn, Derk-Jan Kroon; D: Roeland Kerbosch; W: Roeland Kerbosch; C: Nils Post; M: Joop Stokkermans. VHS