Screenplay coauthored by Miller and Emmanuel Carrière from the latter's successful and disquieting little mystery-thriller novel about an overprotected, highly sensitive boy whose dreams and fantasies of danger while on a stay in the mountains with his school may or may not presage real events.

Such a movie has plusses and minuses: it allows the filmmakers to bring the feverish visions of young Nicolas (Clément ven den Bergh) to vivid life, but it somewhat undermines the sense of uncertainty about what is real or imagined that makes the book effective.

The boy is stronger than I imagined him reading the story. Let's say that the actor puts on a face of shyness and gloom but I don't quite believe it. Still, as a viewer commented on the French website Allociné, "I feel this film does not betray the book." Apparently not shown widely or at all in the US. Beautifully done with excellent restraint, true to the book's muted style, a minor triumph for the underwhelming Miller, whose last admired film was The Little Thief/La petite voleuse with Charlotte Gainsbourg in 1988. Tied for Jury Prize at Cannes, nominated for Golden Palm.

I wanted to see this because I'd read the book. Easy French. This brought it all back, but wasn't quite as disturbing because you know the fantasies are fantasies, every time. In the book it's from the boy's point of view and you aren't always so sure. Lots of closeups of ven den Bergh's face don't make us see entirely through his eyes. It's all more externalized. Still, a nicely modulated mood piece, an excellent evocation of the darker side of childhood imagination. It's not so easy to be a kid. We forget that sometimes.

A possessive father objects to having his son Nicolas traveling on the chartered bus that will take his class to the mountains for skiing lessons. The class will continue with the school work, while the children take their first lessons in the snow. The father decides he will drive Nicolas because no one will assure him he will be safe otherwise. Later, we see Nicolas, his parents and younger brother watching a newscast in which a horrible accident has killed young school children because of a driver that fell asleep at the wheel.

As they arrive in the chalet where all Nicolas' classmates are being housed, the father leaves with his son's bag in the trunk of his car, leaving the boy to depend on the kindness of his friends to lend him pajamas to spend the night. Nicolas only concern is that he might urinate during the night leaving him ashamed and embarrassed in front of the other kids. Nicolas has a vivid imagination. He suffers from nightmares that keep him awake during the night. Nicolas also suffers deeply because of his strange relationship with his father. In the dorm, he becomes friendly with an unruly kid, Hodkann, who is the one that lends him his extra pajama.

In flashbacks we see Nicolas with his father and younger brother at an amusement park. Nicolas wants to go on a ride which requires to be accompanied by an adult because of his age. A strange man offers to stay with the other boy so that Nicolas and the father take the ride, but the father refuses. He explains how some evil persons lurk in public places to steal children, as was the case with a small child that was recently found after his disappearance, but without a kidney.

Things around the chalet suddenly become menacing when the police comes to inquire about the disappearance of a boy, Rene, who might have encountered foul play. Nicolas, who has suffered one of his worst nightmares and locked himself out of the dorm by taking refuge in Patrick's car, develops a fever. When he sees the police arrive at the school his fears suddenly make him realize who might have something to do with Rene's fate.

Claude Miller the director of this film is a man that is attracted to themes that involve children in perilous situations. Mr. Miller's career shows his sensitive approach toward troubled youths. Emmanuel Carrere, wrote and adapted, with Mr. Miller, his original novel, which unfortunately, we didn't read. The film seems to dwell on the mind of Nicolas. He knows more than what he can express. This is a boy that has been traumatized by his monster father in this psychological drama. There are things that are merely hinted at, such as the incestuous relationship between father and son.

In Nicolas mind some of the horror he experiences take a sexual nature, like in the night when instead of urination, the boy experiences his first orgasm, which totally confuses him. We realize early on how Nicolas has been damaged by his monster father. When he comes in contact at a restaurant with a mother that is changing her infant in a nursery, Nicolas becomes fascinated with the situation in which tenderness is given to the small baby, something that he probably have never felt from either one of his parents.

Clement Van Den Bergh makes an intense case for Nicolas. The boy is photographed in close ups most of the time. His face registers a lot of what is going on in his mind. Francois Roy is seen as the possessive father, but he only shows in the first part of the film. Lokman Nalcakan plays Nicolas' friend.

There are both problem children and problem parents. In this TV movie Nicolas has an over-protective father who will not allow his son to ride on the school bus on their holiday excursion to the mountains. He explains that there are criminals around who kidnap children from side-walks, playgrounds etc. Nicolas being a sensitive child elaborates on his father's fears and has regular bouts of day-dreaming as well as horrific nightmares. This makes interesting entertainment. I like the intercutting of dreams and reality. The horror mounts from scene to scene in a confusing mixture. Nicolas confides to his friend Hodkann that organised criminals pounce on children and cut out their kidneys and livers in mobile hospitals. Sad-faced Nicolas is convincing as the imaginative child. He tells Hodkann that he is an informer and that he helps his father in seeking out these traffickers in human organs. Nicolas also reads horror stories at bed-time. "The Monkey's Paw" scene is a brilliant piece of technical manipulation. Nicolas asks his tutor if it is possible to make things happen just by thinking hard enough about them. This theme is pursued in many scenes where Nicolas manipulates scenes on the television screen e.g. he imagines his father in an automobile accident. I have the feeling that Nicolas is a really mixed up kid and his psychological problems result in worrying bed-wettings. This is alluded to constantly. Clement van der Bergh with his sad and unsmiling face is admirable as young Nicolas, and in contrast we have his happy-go-lucky friend Hodkann in constant awe of Nicolas's imaginative stories. The film centres about their friendship and their adventures. Their warm relationship is convincing. An early scene (actually a nightmare) shows an assassination of virtually everyone by terrorists who attack the mountain lodge. Yes, it's an exciting film that keeps you awake to the end.