A grieving teacher and a troubled teenager at the center of THE HOLY BOY

September 13, 2026 12hotness 0likes 0comments

THE HOLY BOY: a grieving teacher drawn into the secret of a town without pain

The town welcomes Sergio (Michele Riondino) with an extraordinary warmth. Everyone appears happy, yet the new teacher carries the signs of what seems to be depression, setting him apart from the people around him. His arrival gradually leads him toward a local woman, who invites him to a strange ceremony. There, Sergio comes face-to-face with Matteo (Giulio Feltri), one of his students: a shy, withdrawn teenager believed to possess divine powers. An embrace from Matteo is said to remove a person’s pain and demons, leaving them at peace.

A grieving teacher and a troubled teenager at the center of THE HOLY BOY

A community’s peace depends on Matteo’s suffering

Sergio eventually understands the source of the town’s well-being. Its inhabitants discharge their afflictions into Matteo, who absorbs them all. His father and the village men control the boy and require him to receive the townspeople every day. The community treats him as both a treasured figure and a prisoner, leaving him no opportunity to live the ordinary life of an adolescent.

Matteo’s situation troubles Sergio in particular because the boy recalls the child he lost tragically. Community members warn him away, but Sergio continues to approach Matteo and urges him toward independence. His intervention awakens something in the teenager. Little by little, Matteo begins to master the force inside him and turn it toward the frustrations he has been forced to contain.

The film links its supernatural premise to homosexuality and abuse

The supernatural story gives shape to several forms of suffering. The town’s cheerful appearances conceal pain; adults unload their frustrations onto a young person who never asked for this role; faith and the sacred become part of the community’s logic; and those with authority exploit someone more vulnerable. Beneath this social portrait, however, THE HOLY BOY is driven by two intimate dramas with gay themes.

Matteo represses his homosexuality while loving a boy in his class. That boy wants him too, but also abuses him. Sergio’s connection to Matteo is marked by an older tragedy: he lost his child horribly after failing to support him when the child became a target of bullying because of his difference. Sergio therefore transfers his guilt and grief onto Matteo, trying to protect in him the child he could not protect before. Matteo’s power gives him a way to resist the violence around him, though its consequences are ultimately more damaging than beneficial.

An unsettling vision that does not fully overcome its weaknesses

Paolo Strippoli gives the film an atmospheric and ambitious direction, even if its execution is not always completely assured. The pace can be demanding, some touches feel awkward, and the elegance of the filmmaking does not yet possess full confidence. These limitations prevent THE HOLY BOY from reaching the highest level. Even so, the film takes genuine risks, moving into both deep sensitivity and darkness. Its final passage, when everything literally catches fire, is especially disturbing.