English Subs: Enzo

Enzo is a French coming-of-age film, wherein youth, desire, and class collide. Enzo is a film by Laurent Cantent (Entre les Murs) and directed by Robin Campillo (120 BPM). Together, they tell a universal tale. Against his family’s expectations, sixteen-year-old Enzo (new talent Eloy Pohu) doesn’t start at university. He rather trains to become a bricklayer.

He’s perceived as a failure, but feels more at home on the construction site than in the posh villa he grew up in. When his charismatic colleague Vlad takes him into this other world, this existence seems far more valuable to Enzo. This increases existing tensions at home. Enzo feels a growing pressure to live up to the expectations of his parents (Élodie Bouchez and Pierfrancesco Favino).

This was the opening film of the Filmmakers’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. Cantet and Campillo co-wrote the screenplay for Enzo, Cantet’s last film.