Come As You Are

Three twenty-something special-needs men go on a road trip to Spain to lose their virginity in Come As You Are, a likable seriocomedy loosely inspired by Asta Philpot, an advocate for handicapped persons’ sexuality. Genial Jozef (Tom Audenaert) is almost completely blind. Prankster Philip (Robrecht Vanden Thoren) is a paraplegic. Likewise wheelchair-bound, Lars (Gilles De Schryver) has a degenerative terminal illness that brings on paralysis and occasional fits. Fictitiously elaborating on Philpot’s real-life trips to a wheelchair-accessible Spanish brothel and his advocacy of prostitution as one sexual-expression option for the disabled, the film is never condescending, and Geoffrey Enthoven’s assured direction likewise resists overplaying the obvious emotional cues. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)