Bullying is not just an epidemic in American schools, but an increasingly brutal worldwide phenomenon that can result in damaged psyches and death, as the headlines too often reveal.
That's what led to the making of "Ben X," an award-winning drama from Belgium opening Friday at the Nuart Theatre. The movie revolves around a 16-year-old boy named Ben (Greg Timmermans) who has Asperger's syndrome -- an autistic disorder characterized by difficulties in social interactions and restricted patterns of behavior and interests. Ben is mercilessly ridiculed and tormented by his classmates, and the only way he can escape such harsh realities is by playing the video game Archlord. In that virtual world, he is a hero who vanquishes the villains.
Bullying "is one of these epidemics that seem hard to root out," says Nic Balthazar, who wrote and directed the film. "Bullying in itself and bullying, the name itself, is even too slight for what it is. It is psychological warfare. It is like psychological degrading of somebody else. This goes on in every school in the Western world and is often a lot harder than the harshest reality we portray in the movie."
And what he shows in the movie is not for the squeamish. At one point, Ben's pants are pulled down in class, with the incident shot on camera phones and then put on the Internet. Another time, two of the most brutal bullies kidnap him, forcing him to miss his bus and train.
"A lot of people ask me, 'Why did you make such a hard movie?' " Balthazar says. "I said, if I made a film about the things I have heard, if I had even gone closer to the reality, this would have been near unwatchable."
"Ben X" is based on the true story of a 17-year-old Belgian boy with Asperger's who killed himself. "He went to a normal school," Balthazar says. "He was a gifted, bright young boy, but being unable to defend himself in this social game, where you need such skill to survive. . . . He said in his goodbye note that he was pushed over the edge, bullied to death. I can tell you in the real story [the bullying incidents] were even sexual in nature, so you can easily imagine what things happened."
The film ultimately stems from Balthazar's status at home in Belgium as a popular TV personality and talk-show host with a following among young viewers. Several years ago, he was asked to write a book that would appeal to teens who don't read books.
