‘Jonathan’ moves far beyond a conventional coming-of-age tale and explores a father-son relationship against the backdrop of sexuality and coming to terms with it. Directed by Piotr J. Lewandowski, ‘Jonathan’ has the wonder eyed Jannis Niewöhner in the title role, who comes up with a superlative performance.
It’s on a delightfully lighter vein that the film maker talks of death and the innumerable hassles associated with it, and as Burghard, Jonathan’s father (played by the remarkably good Andre Hennicke) mumbles, ‘he’s busy with dying at the moment’!
For Jonathan, it does remain a coming-of-age story, and for his dad a coming-out tale, and as the youngster grapples with anger, grief and a fierce sense of guilt even, the film evolves into something dreadfully beautiful, as much as I hate the use of an oxymoron here.
Verdict: Emotionally Draining