The new trailer for beautiful, Oscar-nominated film Close is here – and it’s agonisingly emotional

The most recent trailer for coming-of-age film Close, directed by Lukas Dhont, has been released – and tissues are advised.

The trailer follows newcoming actors Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele as thirteen-year-olds Léo and Rémi and introduces the viewer to the world of a Belgian boyhood drama that centres on the innocent, unnamed love between two young boys.

Billed as “an elegant, poetic and empathic study of youth”, Léo and Rémi’s relationship becomes strained as they enter adolescence and all the pressures of a new school year.

Their bond begins to be interrogated by their contemporaries in the sort of heart-stopping, stomach-plunging, ‘Can I ask you a question? Don’t be mad,’ way that most queer children will recognise as painfully relatable staple of growing up.

“Best friends, as close as brothers,” the trailer sees the pair attempt to navigate their coming-of-age amid pressures from friends and family – and each other.

We also see Rémi’s mother in tears, Léo’s mother asking him what’s wrong and what looks like a physical playground fight between the pair as their unexplored feelings erupt in anger reserved only for those who have not yet mastered a control of their emotions.

The film has received several stellar reviews already – the BBC have called it: “An exceptional film of empathy and vision,” IndieWire have named it: “Unforgettably powerful,” and Total Film have described the drama as: “Sensitive, graceful and impeccably restrained.”

It has also been given five-star reviews by The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Irish Times and more.

The film is from acclaimed director Lukas Dhont, who won two awards at Cannes Film Festival for his directorial debut Girl in 2018. One of these was the LGBTQ-focused Queer Palm award.

Dhont described the film to Entertainment Weekly as about “that moment in our lives where love doesn’t have to have a name, where it can exist so freely and so boundless and pure.

“When we listen to 13-year-old boys and how they speak about each other, how they look at each other and how they cling to one another, they all seem to resemble Léo and Rémi. So why do we not represent that reality?”

Close has already won The Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival 2022, and has been nominated at the 2023 Oscars for the Best International Feature Film.

 The film also received nominations for Best Motion Picture – Non English Language at the 2023 Golden Globes, Best Foreign Language Film at the 2023 Critics Choice Awards and Best European Film, Director, Actor and Screenwriter at the 2022 European Film Awards. 

The film has already been released by A24 in the United States on 27 January 2023. Streaming service MUBI has acquired the rights for distribution in England.

Close will be released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 3 March, but will be available on MUBI from 21 April.