Teen Suicide in Film History, Part 9: "Ben X & Scarlite"

Although inspired by a real case of teen suicide, in Nic Balthazar's film "Ben X" (Belgium, 2007) there is a happy ending...

Ben X and Scarlite, or how an autist can survive in a hostile world (Comment by two-rivers, published on imdb.com)

"Ben X" is a word pun in Belgian Dutch and could als be read as "ben niks", which means "I am nothing" in English. In fact, Ben (Greg Timmermans), the teenage protagonist of Nic Balthazar's first feature film, has lost contact to the world that surrounds him and does not want to play any role in it. He lacks communication skills, and does not seem to be bothered by that. The sad result is that he is bullied by his classmates in the most atrocious ways, a treatment that he does not even try to resist.

On the other hand there is Scarlite (Laura Verlinden), a beautiful girl, that seems to be in a way connected to Ben. When two of his classmates, Desmet and Bogaert, have taken his mobile phone away from him during another bully attack, they find a picture of Scarlite and a message telling him that she is going to meet him the next day at the train station. They are full of surprise: how could a guy that does not speak to anyone have such a lovely girlfriend?

The answer is that Ben has created a parallel world of his own, playing online games. In cyber space he has met a girl who uses the name of "Scarlite", and who has become a collaborator in his adventures and even a kind of confidant or friend who intuitively guesses what is behind his plan to play the so-called "endgame": he is planning to commit suicide, and almost instantaneously she volunteers to be his "healer".

But the meeting in the real world turns out to take shape in the only way that seems to be possible for a guy that is suffering from the Asperger syndrom: Although Ben sees Scarlite at the train station, he is unable to communicate with her. It is as if suddenly a barrier has appeared which he cannot penetrate. The girl finally walks away, but Ben forces himself to follow her and steps into the train that she takes and even manages to sit down next to her. Then, noting that he is in some sort of pain, she simply asks him if he is fine. Ben again cannot respond in a way a non-autistic person would do, and he hurriedly escapes from the train and loses track of Scarlite.

Is this the end? In the next scene Ben is seen on a platform ready to jump. But when a train arrives and he is about to carry out his plan, he is miraculously saved by Scarlite who pulls him back. As it later becomes clear, this second appearance of Scarlite, in which she proves to be the "healer", preventing him from suicide, is no more than a construction of his imagination: Scarlite is present throughout most parts of the remaining footage, but she is never seen interacting with members of the real world, for instance Ben's parents, and in the final scene she virtually disappears, after seemingly having had a conversation with Ben the moment before.

It therefore seems as if Ben is sitting alone and talking to himself. Strange situation, but thinking about it well, this must be taken as the only possible solution for his life. As it is difficult to establish a well-working human relationship for most autistic people, the salvation could lie in the imaginative forces of the mind.

We might even call it love. Although the idea that autists are able to develop such a feeling must be new even to experts, the facts of the film are quite clear: Ben has become attached to Scarlite - or the idea of Scarlite - and after she saved him from suicide, he accepted her as a kind of personal healer. He has failed to approach her using the patterns of social behaviour that a non-autistic person would use, but nonetheless nothing is lost. Using the forces of imagination, from that moment onwards Scarlite will be a part of his life. He will not stop loving her, and this imagined relationship might even prove to be more stable than a real one.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Autism
• Asperger
• Syndrome
• Teen
• Suicide
• Bullying
• Mobbing
• Computer
• Games
• Nic
• Balthazar
• Greg
• Timmermans
• Laura
• Verlinden

[theJoker5234]

Wait isnt this movie German?

[deuxfleuves]

@theJoker5234 No, it's Belgian.

[m00seeka]

where can i watch this movie with an english subtitle.?

[deuxfleuves]

@m00seeka you can get it from amazon.com

[belguimmusiclover]

@deuxfleuves it's good to be a belgian :-)

[obeekayone]

This movie is so heart touching and those bullies were supposed to suffer...oh poor Ben that was a painfull humiliation

[Qorumz]

@dkhunter011 agreed, gaming is a thing a guy can do for his hobby

[dkhunter011]

look at all thoose gay bullies wanting to see his penis, god bullies are complete assholes, i say all us gamers get together and kill them all very violently!

[TheHappyhaki]

J'ai écouté ce film, il est très touchant et en même temps on se sent si "impuissant" de voir ce pauvre Ben se faire maltraiter constamment par ses camarades de classes...

Merci d'avoir mis ses vidéos, j'ai quelques films à visionner maintenant