Sébastien Lifshitz seems to have learned from the mistakes of other directors, who often fail in their depictions of adolescent yearning and awakening sexuality by trying to make too grand a statement. His languid but affecting film is a well-observed and subtle depiction that doesn’t attempt the impossible by forcing its characters to become archetypes of youthful experience.

Slender, contemplative Mathieu (Jérémie Elkaïm) is vacationing near Nantes with his stifling family: a mother medicated and depressed after the death of her baby; a sullen younger sister; a doting aunt. One day on the beach he meets Cédric (Stéphane Rideau), cocksure, older, and more physically robust. The film’s non-linear narrative presents stages of the pair’s 18-month relationship — Mathieu’s sexual awakening, a whirlwind courtship, his coming-out, separation from Cédric, a hinted-at suicide attempt and ultimate recovery — in a disjointed way that often challenges the viewer. But though the device may sometimes appear haphazard, it never seems gratuitous. Neither do close-up shots of masturbation or graphic scenes of rough trade. Homosexuality is a secondary consideration here; rather, Lifshitz employs Elkaïm’s detailed performance, pitch-perfect dialogue, and an artful cinematographic eye to limn the story of one man’s physical and emotional maturation.