Aaron

As the summer days ripple by, Aaron often stands at the window. More and more often, he catches himself watching a boy playing soccer. Soon Aaron buys a ball himself and tries to persuade the boy to play soccer with him. Ben Gijsemans contemplates the inner conflict of a young man who - confused, even disturbed by what is going on inside him - discovers his paedosexual tendencies and does not know how to deal with them. The subject requires courage and dealing with it artistically, in today's context of rapid outrage, is a tightrope walk. Ben Gijsemans masters this brilliantly. "Aaron" is told in an emphatically undramatic way. The page layout is strict, the images are often repeated with slight variations that express Aaron's gestures of hesitation, his facial expressions of doubt, his growing despair. "Aaron" is not a rousing spectacle; we have to interpret for ourselves what is going on in the protagonist's mind. It is impressive how Ben Gijsemans conveys the awakening of paedosexuality in "Aaron" without moralising or condemning. This makes "Aaron" an uncomfortable but powerful read.