'Julian' Courtesy of TIFF Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment There's a video in Julian that Fleur (Nina Meurisse) keeps returning to. In it, her lover Julian (Laurence Roothooft) sings Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" while dancing playfully for the camera. Fleur watches the video on her laptop quietly, eyes filled with longing. That's the way Fleur looks at Julian in real life too - adoring and feverishly in love, so when Fleur announces that the pair are getting married over dinner with friends, everyone responds with joy and delight. They're perfectly matched - Julian is the quiet, observant one while Fleur is chatty, outgoing and ambitious. It's Fleur who decides that she and Julian will be married in the 22 countries where same-sex marriage is legal, turning their love into an expansive, challenging political project. Related Stories Movies Chloé Zhao on Why She Took a Four Year Break From Filmmaking and Signed on to 'Hamnet' Only After Meeting Paul Mescal Movies Why Joachim Trier Dropped the Irony in 'Sentimental Value': "I Had to Be a Better Director" Julian moves backward and forward in time, starting in the 2010s with the happy couple planning their wedding tour around the world and ending in a post-COVID world with Fleur alone, telling the story of her time with Julian. We soon learn that Julian is sick, and will die before the global wedding tour is over. By showing both timelines, director Cato Kusters resists using Julian's illness as a plot device, encouraging us to watch these women without the pretense of melodrama. Instead, we observe Fleur's love for Julian in three different modes - as a lover, a caretaker and, eventually, a widow, with her eyes glued to her laptop, revisiting footage of happier times. Kusters focuses on the small, tender moments. Every look and touch is gently observed. Julian The Bottom Line A delicate debut. Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Discovery)Cast: Nina Meurisse, Laurence Roothooft, Jennifer Heylen, Claire BodsonDirector: Cato KustersWriters: Cato Kusters, Angelo Tijssens 1 hour 31 minutes The first image of Julian we see is of the back of her neck - the camera holds on it for a moment, as if Fleur is about to reach out and touch it. Fleur comes of age in love, with Julian as her ill-fated teacher. Julian, who presents as masculine in contrast to her femme lover, is deeply in touch with the complex sadness of queer life. In one scene, after learning of the fate of a queer person who didn't receive the support they deserved from loved ones, Julian goes off to reflect on what she's heard. Unlike Fleur, Julian isn't in contact with her parents at all. In an early scene, the couple drives to her family home, but Julian can't bring herself to go inside. We never learn exactly why, but we don't need to; everything about Julian from the way she looks to how she walks tells the story of her life. The film is propelled almost entirely by raw emotion, and once we know about Fleur's unwavering love and Julian's ultimate fate, we are left to sit with the universal tragedy of their situation. Queer couples must contend with bigoted family members, uncaring governments and numerous social barriers in order to just live their lives in love together. Their lives and relationships are more than political statements - these are humans with bodies just as susceptible to illness and depression. Throughout the film, Fleur learns that Julian's mortality is out of her hands and that illness is indifferent to the political and emotional stakes of her marriage. Meurisse and Roothooft are perfectly cast as the ill-fated couple, and Kusters gives us enough scenes of them together and happy to soften the blow of their eventual tragedy. While Julian is alive, she is surrounded by love, and after she passes, Fleur has a community looking after her. In one lovely scene later in the film, a friend lulls her to sleep, his face appearing in a video call on her laptop. Though she is physically alone in her hotel room, missing Julian, the voice and face of a loved one is with Fleur, refusing to allow her to be alone in her grief. With Julian, Kusters has made an impressive, understated directorial debut about love, loss and the bravery required to keep trying to live in an unfair world. Full credits Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Discovery)Cast: Nina Meurisse, Laurence Roothooft, Jennifer Heylen, Claire BodsonDirector: Cato KustersWriters: Cato Kusters, Angelo TijssensProducers: Lukas Dhont, Michiel Dhont, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc DardenneEditor: Lot RossmarkCinematographer: Michel RosendaalComposers: Evgueni Galperine, Sacha GalperineProduction companies: The Reunion, Les Films Du Fleuve, Topkapi Films 1 hour 31 minutes THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Sub