WATCH: At a juvenile detention center, two young men have to decide between love & freedom

“Right person, wrong time.”

It’s a phrase associated with the most ironic of meet-cutes. Those chance encounters, those instant connections with someone that feel like fate… if only the circumstances were different.

It could definitely be a tagline for the new French-Belgian drama, The Lost Boys (a.k.a. its ironic original title, “Le Paradis”), which follows the passionate romance between two young men—who happen to be doing time in a youth correctional facility.

Our protagonist is Joe (Peter Van Kant‘s Khalil Ben Gharbia), a French-Arab teen who, despite many attempts at escaping the prison-like reform center, is finally nearing the possibility of release.

However, Joe suddenly finds it hard to think about the next chapter of his life—or anything else, for that matter—when a new arrival catches his eye. William (Julien De Saint Jean of Lie With Me, also on the festival circuit this fall) is rumored to have stabbed someone, but that doesn’t scare Joe away from wanting to get closer.

The spark is there, instantaneously, though the boys are operating on stolen time; they’re strictly forbidden from physical contact. Still, Joe and William can’t resist the fire they feel in one another, and do their bets to carry out an affair in secret.

As Joe’s 18th birthday and his release approaches, he has to grapple with what freedom even means if he can’t be with the person he loves. What are these two willing to risk to stay together? Is it worth it?

These questions and more are at the heart of writer-director Zeno Graton’s film, which calls into question the effectiveness of these so-called “reformative” systems, while also letting audiences bask in the surprisingly emotional and tender romance at its core.

In conversation with The WoW Report, the filmmaker opens up about some of the themes he was most interested in exploring with The Lost Boys: “One of the main threads of the movie was to give the opportunity to have male characters that were tender between each other, not only in a love or sexual way, but also in a very comrade ‘friends in adversity’ way. Like, how you can team up as oppressed group to go against an institutional authority.”

Related:

Gay inmates make history by tying the knot in prison

One of the men, after being released from prison early, intentionally broke the law again so he could return to the man he loved.

The Lost Boys debuted earlier this year at the prestigious 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, and has spent the past few months touring fests around the globe.

Next, Graton brings the feature stateside to the 28th Annual Seattle Queer Film Festival, where it’ll screen on October 20, and then become available to audiences anywhere via the fest’s virtual streaming platform beginning October 22. You can find tickets (in-person and virtual) and more information here.

Check out the international trailer for The Lost Boys below: