Close to Leo is a 2002 French TV film directed by Christophe Honoré

Christophe Honoré

Christophe Honoré is a French writer and film director born in Carhaix, Finistère in 1970.After moving to Paris in 1995, he wrote articles in "Les Cahiers du Cinéma." He started writing soon-after. His 1996 book Tout contre Léo talks about HIV and is aimed at young adults; he made it into a movie...

 and based on his 1996 novel for young adults. It is also known as Everything Against Leo.

Plot

Leo (Pierre Mignard), is the eldest of four brothers. Marcel (Yannis Lespert), age 10, is the youngest. With their young parents, they are a happy and close-knit family. One evening, Marcel overhears his family discussing the news that Leo is HIV-positive. They all agree to protect Marcel from the news, even though Leo wants to tell his little brother, not only that he has HIV, but that he is gay.

The family continues pretending everything is fine to Marcel, but the young boy is devastated and starts behaving badly. Marcel wants the truth, but neither his parents nor his brothers can bring themselves to speak openly about it. Marcel is just on the edge of puberty and is sometimes childish and sometimes mature and sensitive. When he is excluded from a midnight ocean swim by his brothers, he follows them to the beach demanding to be included.

Leo takes Marcel off to Paris so that he can visit an old boyfriend and explain both himself and his situation to his young brother.

Marcel understands that Leo is very unhappy with his situation, and sees him decide to stop taking his medication. Leo cannot cope with the stress and puts Marcel on a train back home to Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

, asking the boy to lighten the atmosphere back home.