Son of the Shark (1995)

One of the most powerful stories of childhood despair ever, Agnes Merlet's Son of the Shark, about two delinquent brothers (Ludovic Vandendaele and Erick Da Silva) who compulsively vandalize their town, is also one of the great love stories. Their bond is shattering in its intensity and heartbreaking in its dependency: The older brother, sent to a reformatory, walks the roads for days to get back to the younger one — and to embark on a new spree. As they ravage the town with spontaneous glee, yet without malice, any conventional future they might have had evaporates. This French film, shot with a wonderful sense of the unexpected, is shocking and haunting — a brutal masterpiece.