In his debut, Nic Balthazar skillfully mixes different social topics: addiction to video games, autism and also school bullying. Even though its scenes are sometimes excessive, Ben X is both a visual and a psychological punch. The video game universe provides Ben with a perfect shelter in which he finds the strength to continue living in real life. Also, this addiction will help him to do some discoveries and encounters. The many connections established between reality and the game are relevant. At the end, the film leads to wonder where the limits between reality and fiction are and it also shows that a video game can have both negative and positive consequences in the real world. Nic Balthazar cleverly mixes these two universes in order to get a hyperrealist and moving result that portrays a merciless world that constantly reject those who are different. Full review on our blog Los Indiscretos : https://losindiscretos.org

I am not a gamer at all, so when i first saw the intro; Ben (Greg Timmermans) logging in his RPG account, picking up some cloths and weapons while narrating with his troubled and stuttering voice i thought: "Oh man, this is gonna be lame and boring as hell". I couldn't be more wrong!If you don't know how a guy suffering the Asperger syndrome (a form of autism) feels, this is THE movie by excellence. The actors performances are simply flawless, even breathtaking, the scenario is absolutely brilliant and the story, heartbreaking! Scenes after scenes, layers after layers you discover the cartesian mind prison in which Ben is held, trying his best to look normal. But also the disquietude and pain his family have to bear; some bullying scenes are quite painful to watch. If you've notice how teenagers can be cruel to each others, specially with those who don't fit the mold, then you won't have troubles believing that this story is based on real events. It's a very humane approach of a complex and misunderstood mental illness with a lot of depth. It's also a reflection on bullying vs "sin of omission" in a way. This movie should have way more exposure.

"Ben X" is a word pun in Belgian Dutch and could also be read as "ben niks", which means "I am nothing" in English. In fact, Ben, the teenage protagonist of Nic Baltazar's first feature film, has lost contact to the world that surrounds him and does not want to play any role in it. He lacks communication skills, and does not seem to be bothered by that. The sad result is that he is bullied by his classmates in the most atrocious ways, a treatment that he does not even try to resist.On the other hand there is Scarlite, a beautiful girl, that seems to be in a way connected to Ben. When two of his classmates, Desmet and Bogaert, have taken his mobile phone away from him during another bully attack, they find a picture of Scarlite and a message telling him that she is going to meet him the next day at the train station. They are full of surprise: how could a guy that does not speak to anyone have such a lovely girlfriend? The answer is that Ben has created a parallel world of his own, playing online games. In cyber space he has met a girl who uses the name of "Scarlite", and who has become a collaborator in his adventures and even a kind of confidant or friend who intuitively guesses what is behind his plan to play the so-called "endgame": he is planning to commit suicide, and almost instantaneously she volunteers to be his "healer".But the meeting in the real world turns out to take shape in the only way that seems to be possible for a guy that is suffering from the Asperger syndrome: Although Ben sees Scarlite at the train station, he is unable to communicate with her. It is as if suddenly a barrier has appeared which he cannot penetrate. The girl finally walks away, but Ben forces himself to follow her and steps into the train that she takes and even manages to sit down next to her. Then, noting that he is in some sort of pain, she simply asks him if he is fine. Ben again cannot respond in a way a non-autistic person would do, and he hurriedly escapes from the train and loses track of Scarlite.Is this the end? In the next scene Ben is seen on a platform ready to jump. But when a train arrives and he is about to carry out his plan, he is miraculously saved by Scarlite who pulls him back. As it later becomes clear, this second appearance of Scarlite, in which she proves to be the "healer", preventing him from suicide, is no more than a construction of his imagination: Scarlite is present throughout most parts of the remaining footage, but she is never seen interacting with members of the real world, for instance Ben's parents, and in the final scene she virtually disappears, after seemingly having had a conversation with Ben the moment before.It therefore seems as if Ben is sitting alone and talking to himself. Strange situation, but thinking about it well, this must be taken as the only possible solution for his life. As it is difficult to establish a well-working human relationship for most autistic people, the salvation could lie in the imaginative forces of the mind.We might even call it love. Although the idea that autists are able to develop such a feeling must be new even to experts, the facts of the film are quite clear: Ben has become attached to Scarlite - or the idea of Scarlite - and after she saved him from suicide, he accepted her as a kind of personal healer. He has failed to approach her using the patterns of social behavior that a non-autistic person would use, but nonetheless nothing is lost. Using the forces of imagination, from that moment onwards Scarlite will be a part of his life. He will not stop loving her, and this imagined relationship might even prove to be more stable than a real one.

Nic Balthazar's feature film debut is a brave and visually symptomatic depiction of the harrowing consequences of social repression, that portrays the life of emotive teenager Ben who lives with his mother and younger brother in the city of Brussels. He has Asperger's syndrome and through the years he has been bullied so much that he has escaped into the computer game MMORPG Archlords virtual role-play world where he is a confident and courageous warrior. Ben uses this game to prepare for the unliveable reality at school where he goes under nicknames such as "Frankenstein" and "The man from March", but however hard he tries to adjust he always ends up in front of his computer with his head drained by suicidal and vengeful thoughts. Ben's fuse is almost burned out and the only glimpses of faith and hope in a happiness he has never know, rests on is his role-play partner Scarlite. Former Belgian film critic Nic Balthazar's first film is an adaptation of his own novel "Nothing was all he said", which is inspired by a true story about a 17-year old boy with mild autism who committed suicide by jumping from the Gravensteen castle in Gent because of bullying. "Ben X" is told through the main character's brutally honest voice-over, frequent flashback scenes and flash forward scenes where semi-documentary interviews create ominous forebodings. The film plays out in three alternative worlds; Ben's social realistic everyday life, the fictive computer game world in Archlord and the divided world inside Ben's head that balances on a thin line between reality and fantasy. Nic Balthazar's experimental filming creates a good pace which is accelerated by a soundtrack that really serves it's purpose considering the films serious depiction of themes such as alienation, collective bullying, autism, identity crises, suicide and courage.The title of the film refers to the Dutch phrase "(Ik) ben niks" which means; (I) am nothing. Through Nic Balthazar's creative direction, frequent use of close-ups and Greg Timmerman's unrestrained performance this movie is able to project the protagonist's versatile states of mind on the viewers. This is a socially intellectual film about a constantly relevant topic and an intimate study of character about a young boy who is repeatedly faced with a reality that forces him to choose between giving up his existence by his own hand or use the last grams of self-respect to retaliate.All though it has some similarities with American filmmaker Richard Kelly's "Donnie Darko" (2001) and Irish filmmaker John Crowley's "Boy A" (2007), this character-driven socio-drama needs no comparison as it stands so well on it's own feet. It reaches the miraculous in the last act and this unforgettable scene is intensified by the transcending song "Svefn-G-englar" by the Icelandic band Sigur Rós. This is futuristic social realism with audio-visual force.