ENZO

THREE AND A HALF STARS A teenage boy forms an attachment with an older, male, co-worker.

DRAMA FRANCE French #ENZO Starring Eloy Pohu, Maksym Slivinskyi

ENZO is a heartfelt coming-of-age film that sidesteps melodrama to tell the story of Enzo (Eloy Pohu), a teenager whose world opens up when he who defies his bourgeois family, takes a masonry apprenticeship and forms a friendship with Vlad (Maksym Slivinsky), a charismatic Ukrainian co-worker ten years his senior.

Director Robin Campillo has completed the final screenplay by his late friend and collaborator Laurent Cantet, and a better combination is hard to imagine. There’s a terrific alignment between the pair whose shared work has often explored themes of cultural or class conflict (EASTERN BOYS), usually in a resilient, quasi-documentary style (THE CLASS).

So it is with ENZO whose strength lies in its naturalistic tone—there’s little exposition, and no neat resolutions, but the emotional arc lands with considerable power. It’s a film where silences and glances between characters speak volumes, one which may frustrate viewers looking for a more traditional payoff but rewards those attuned to its rhythm.

16 year old Enzo is resisting the easy route his family’s comfortable position can afford him. Much to the frustration of his concerned but accommodating father (the always compelling Pierfrancesco Favino), he’s taken a job on a construction site although he clearly has no aptitude for the work. In one of the lighter scenes, his supervisor drives the boy home one day to speak with his parents, shocked to discover that Enzo lives in a designer home with ocean views and a private pool. The boy is clearly a nepo-baby slumming it at work - but what’s motivating his choice is left largely to the audience to work out. Neither Cantet nor Campillo are too tied up about it, they’re much more interested in the subtext.

Newcomer Pohu brings a mix of wounded pride and restless yearning to the title role. Despite his youth, his is a mature performance often saying more with a look than with dialogue. His chemistry with Slivinsky is electric in its understatement; their relationship unfolds slowly, tentatively, and feels all the more authentic for it. 

Agitated, perhaps embarrassed by his upbringing (aren’t all adolescents?), Enzo is drawn to the ‘otherness’ of Vlad - his energy, his strength, good looks, his ease with people, his immigrant back-story. It’s all heavily romanticised and when Vlad takes Enzo under his wing, infatuation quickly becomes something the boy is ill-equipped to process. Fuelled by poor decisions (notably not knowing how much is too much liquor at your brother's party), the consequences are inevitable.

Comparisons with CALL ME BY YOUR NAME are also inevitable, especially in the enigmatic final scene, yet this is a very different beast. While ENZO simmers with homoerotic tension, the boyhood crush never develops sufficiently to tag this a ‘gay movie’. On screen at least, there’s nothing much beyond a chaste brush of skin, certainly no heavy breathing behind the bushes. That resides in the ambiguous subtext between two awkward and unlikely friends. The film’s much better for not declaring its hand and leaving it to audiences to make up their own minds.

All of which is supported by Jeanne Lapoirie’s excellent cinematography. He captures the stark beauty of a sun-bleached landscape that echoes Enzo’s world, one brimming with brightness and possibility. It recalls Alain Guiraudie’s Queer Palm winner STRANGER BY THE LAKE in the use of light, location and quiet, determined framing.

ENZO is not a film of big moments, but small, meaningful ones. Its portrait of masculinity - vulnerable, uncertain, and quietly rebellious - feels refreshing. While some viewers may find its pacing too languid, Campillo’s measured touch and the authenticity of his performances make for a rewarding, moving experience.

ENZO screened at The Sydney Film Festival 2025.

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