Martin, confident beyond his 16 years, infiltrates the perfectly normal life of his much older swimming instructor, Sebastiano - who has a girlfriend - and succeeds in turning it completely upside down. Manipulating his way into spending the night at his coach's apartment, Martin's plans of entrapment appear obvious, as he lies sprawled on the couch barely clothed.

Absent cleverly revels in mind games to create a highly original and unconventional sexual thriller. Berger's moody, languid tale of sexual obsession creates a palpable atmosphere of boiling sexual tension from the first frame.