After growing up in a strict Trappist convent, the young novice Avril (Quinton) is ready to pledge her life to the order. But Sister Bernadette (Miou-Miou) quietly tells her she should spend her two-week retreat looking for the twin brother she never knew she had. Unsettled by this news, she sets off on a quest, helped by the friendly Pierre (Duvachelle), and finds her brother David (Sibony) on a beach holiday with his boyfriend (Valls). As they tentatively begin to bond, they make a few more discoveries about their past.

Writer-director Hustache-Mathieu creates a vivid tone that shifts and changes throughout the film. From the moody and dark convent, Avril's journey to the sunny seaside is complex and difficult; dropping the restraints of her oppressive childhood isn't easy. And the film unhurriedly reveals the intricacies of the characters, constantly undermining first impressions. Even the nuns are more layered than we expect, from the controlling mother superior (Casile) to Bernadette's tumultuous internal battle.

The young cast is very good, allowing their characters to blossom steadlily. Quinton uses her remarkably open face to full effect, as Avril leaves her cloistered life and discovers strong connections to what she's always been told was a big bad world. Her interaction with Duvachelle is especially vivid, as Pierre moves from being a kindly stranger to a true friend. And Sibony also gets the chance to find surprisingly levels in the previously thoughtless David.

While the story exists in a kind of nostalgic haze (it's set in 1986, but could be any time), Hustache-Mathieu builds a vivid sense of physicality between the four young people that's both sexy and innocent at the same time. Like Avril, the film feels timid and naive, and yet open to the realities she's discovering. So as the barriers between characters begin to come down, and as they begin to understand their own need for forgiveness and understanding, the film takes on an engaging emotional depth. And we identify with Avril's journey, small step by big step, from comforting ignorance into a world that's scary but fully alive.

In Gothenburg, 40-ish civil engineer Peter (Klingberg) is arrested for killing Nassim (Giro), a man he has strong feelings for. In flashbacks we get their story: Peter had a fiancŽe (Bergquist) and was given control of the family business when his father (Bredefeldt) retired. But his secret sexuality emerges when he sees the overfriendly Nassim on a bus, then arranges to meet him in Keillers Park. Their affair gets quickly serious, with all sorts of ramifications for Peter's work and family.

In addition to the gay themes, this film feels like a bitter attack on the harsh realities of Swedish society, with heavy-handed police techniques, insidious homophobia at every level and even a marauding gang of disenfranchised devil worshippers. This rant-like approach gets tiresome, especially when director Edwards insists on shifting from colour to monochrome for no discernible reason. It looks great, but has no connection to the fragmented flashback structure, which is what keeps us interested as we wait to find out what actually happened in this fiery flare of a relationship.

Against the odds, Klingberg makes the naive, inarticulate Peter a rather likeable guy, while Giro camps it up gleefully as Nassim. Their chemistry is a problem, though, since they're such an unlikely couple and they fall for each other far too quickly. Still, Peter's voyage of self-discovery is at least handled with sensitivity and real emotion, especially the fallout as he starts neglecting his work and, even more severely, when his father finds out.

With this kind of honest drama, it's frustrating that the script continually resorts to contrived plot points and mopey sentimentality. The jumbled structure almost obscures the whopping holes in the story, but it never allows things to deepen into anything terribly meaningful. Every character reacts in sudden, inexplicable ways to whatever they're faced with, which leaves them disconnected and artificial. You can see what the filmmakers were trying to do, and that's admirable. But the result is badly undercooked.