Nicolas's father is overprotective beyond reason. He asks his son's teacher what guarantee she can give that the children will be safe on the planned trip to an outdoor education centre. Miss Grimm responds matter-of-factly that there is "nothing," and the father announces that he will drive Nicolas himself. This father also allows his sons to watch a news item about a horrible bus accident. He tells Nicolas a gruesome story about organ traffickers to explain why he will not leave the little brother in the care of a stranger. He has recently attempted suicide by slitting his wrists, and burdens Nicolas with the torments of his mental imbalance.

Nicolas is a nervous wreck as a result. He is anxious, has nightmares, and wets the bed. Patrick, the instructor at the outdoor ed. centre, recognizes him as a worrier, but also "a dreamer." Nicolas also has a skewed attitude to his own body. He should be fascinated by the impending changes of puberty, but he does not understand a classmate's ribald riddle, and he thinks he's done something "very bad" when he has a "wet dream." During a relaxation exercise, "getting to know his body" brings a series of nightmarish thoughts. His interest in the anatomy booklet he gets with gas station coupons is part of what seems to be a morbid obsession. His wondering why his father doesn't return with his forgotten bag leads to visions of a gruesome accident. Nicolas spends so much time worrying about what terrible things could occur that he has begun to wonder if his "thinking hard" about them can cause them to actually happen.

At the outdoor ed. centre Nicolas has something of a breakthrough. The need to borrow pyjamas leads to overtures of friendship from Hodkann, the class tearaway. His nightmare of organ traffickers shooting all the students turns into a dream of rescuing and protecting Hodkann. The nightmare of seeing his little brother kidnapped by organ traffickers turns into a dream of sharing with Hodkann the thrill of the roller coaster. Nicolas also gets to spend some time with Patrick, a teacher who is easygoing and fun. Their shopping trip to buy clothes for Nicolas is the first time he smiles.

Hodkann is fascinated by the idea that Nicolas is a sleepwalker. Nicolas satisfies that curiosity by spinning a tale of seeing organ traffickers outside, and embellishes it with the claim that his father is tailing them, waiting for an opportunity to "settle the score" of the theft of the little brother's kidney. But Hodkann, totally believing, connects this with the disappearance and murder of a local boy. He reports the story to the police, thinking that he is ensuring the protection of Nicolas's father.

When he hears this, Nicolas faints, thinking he is going to be in deep trouble for misleading the police during a murder inquiry. Then he is told there is "a problem at home," and that he is to be driven back by Patrick. On the way, he sees a television report of his father's arrest, and he realizes that it is his father who is in deep trouble.

In the middle of all this, he sees a beautiful young mother cooing to her baby on a change table. His face takes on a tranquil look, and he exchanges a tender smile with the mother.

At this point his string bracelet falls away, which the teachers had told him would be when his wish would be granted. The "Agnus Dei" from Rossini's Petite Messe Solonelle, which has been used repeatedly during the film, plays to the end, repeating at last the "Dona nobis pacem," or "Grant us your peace." Nicolas's wish may have been to be rid of his father— a wish Miss Grimm actually suggests, as a joke. Perhaps his wish was simply to be at peace— free of anxiety and nightmarish thoughts— and he now feels able to cope with his worries and can return home and ring his doorbell and face whatever awaits there.

The film ends, though, with Hodkann. Whenever he has made a friendly gesture towards Nicolas, the teachers have suspected he was setting up a prank. At the end, he is summoned to the teachers' office, and shown the news item of Nicolas's father in police custody. They expect him to be sobered by the serious consequences of what they assume is a lie he has told. But he has been misunderstood again. He stares at the television, confused, dismayed, in shock. The "Agnus Dei" plays during the credits over an aerial shot of a desolate winter forest, perhaps suggesting the ultimately isolated state of a person's inner life.

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.