Ben X

It's hard to explain.

It's hard to explain myself.

But I never tell lies.

Everything I say is true,

even when I don't say a thing.

Someone always has to die first before anything happens.

Otherwise life just goes on as if there's no problem.

No. Someone always has to die first.

And then everyone suddenly wakes up.

But it's too late then.

That's why someone had to die.

Every morning I play my game from 5:45 till 6:33.

Always.

I've now reached level 80.

If you don't know what that means,

it's just... high.

It means you're strong,

respected in the world.

Hundreds of thousands of people online.

But for more than a year,

I've only been playing with her.

REMEMBER, PRINCESS MAY BE A MAN IN REAL LIFE

YOU ARE YOU

GLAD YOU ARE YOU TOO

In games you can be whoever and whatever you like.

Here you can only be one person...

the jerk you see in the mirror.

I have to teach him everything.

For example, I have to teach him to laugh.

People like that.

To "give them a smile," as they say,

which means smiling when really there's nothing to smile about.

That's how you create your own avatar.

20 seconds for my hands...

and 15 for my hair.

You're as strong as your weapons and tools.

My heart rate meter, for example,

to keep track of my heart, as they say,

for when I get nervous.

Not that it makes me less nervous,

but now I can see exactly how nervous I am.

My mother. Now she's going to say,

- "Good morning, Ben." - Good morning, Ben.

People say that whether it's a good morning or not.

"Good morning, Mom."

People never say, "Bad morning."

Did you sleep well, son?

"Really well, Mom.

It's nice of you to ask. Thank you."

Have you seen my troll, Ben?

My brother Jonas. He's still small.

I have to be his big brother and all.

Trolls don't have horses.

But somehow I never seem to know how to.

Calm down, Ben. Calm down.

Easy now, Ben.

Okay?

Don't take any of it to heart.

"I won't, Mom."

I won't, Mom. I won't take heart.

Won't take it to heart.

You are allowed to take heart, son.

Use your head, don't get worked up.

Give me a kiss.

Go on.

I've also got a weapon for fighting noise...

other noise, but nicer.

Nicer noise.

I've got to use my head.

Think ahead and think a-heart.

Be prepared, be forewarned. Forewarned is forearmed.

It's all a matter of planning, of strategy.

I can't say I was taken totally by surprise, but...

it just proved that...

that everything that'd happened up till now wasn't right.

Before you do something like that,

things must be...

it simply proved to me that

things had just gone too far. Way too far.

People are strange.

They talk and talk and talk.

And they drink each other's saliva.

All I can do is watch

and copy them, imitate them.

Everything I'll never learn.

Because there was always something the matter...

with me and with my hand.

Throw it to someone.

This is getting out of hand!

- Wrong. - What's wrong with you?

I'm the man who's always wrong,

but no one could tell me exactly

how to be right.

Hi, you faggots!

Pat's got a new girlfriend.

Sit down, darling.

Not bad, eh? When an old girl's in heat, sparks can fly.

Do you know what your hand in her knickers feels like?

I don't want to know.

Have you ever given a horse a lump of sugar?

Bogaert and Desmet.

I'm their best friend.

At least, that's what they say.

Oh, there's Benny, our best friend.

Our alien from Pluto.

Living proof that man descended from mussels.

- Mussels? - Hi, Benny-Boy.

The man from Mars! Hi!

Whitney Houston for Benny-Boy. Over.

Come in, Benny-boy, over. Over, Benny-Boy.

Do you read me? Hey, Benny-Boy.

Masturbation makes you deaf!

Is anyone home?

Deaf.

Why did they always come up with that?

If I sat there playing quietly,

they thought my ears weren't working.

The doctor said I could hear

perfectly well but I didn't listen.

He doesn't listen.

Then they thought there was something wrong with my eyes.

Can you see what those letters are?

- Yes. - Yes.

Can you tell me what those are?

Yes.

The idea is that you tell me what the letters are.

C-O-H-Z-V, S-Z-N-D-C,

V-K-C-N-R, K-C-R-H-N,

V-O-R-K, R-H-S-O-N, K-S-V-R-H.

He always looked away as a baby.

He never looked at me.

He always looked through me.

Think of them as a computer that is configured differently.

They see everything.

They see every leaf extremely clearly,

but they don't see the tree.

They literally can't see the wood for the trees.

The big picture... that's what it's all about.

You have to try to see the big picture

and see that they don't see you.

- Look where you're walking. - Retard.

Look where you're walking.

Retard.

Whitney Houston for Benny-Boy...

we have a problem.

For Benny-Boy, the man from Mars.

There are a couple every year.

Always on their own in the playground.

It breaks my heart to see them,

but what can you do? You can't nanny them.

You can't hold their hand.

Not now, that's for sure.

I wanted my son to go to an ordinary school.

My wife... my ex-wife...

and I sometimes argued about it.

But he was much smarter than some of the other kids there.

10 times smarter.

An understandable question.

Where is God? Where is He?

Where is this man with His long grey beard?

With all the wars, the poverty and the injustice...

where is God?

People asked themselves

the same question in Jesus's time.

Jesus was hanging there on the cross

and they said, "Jesus,

why don't you do something?

If your dad is boss of the universe,

if you can raise someone from the dead,

it's child's play for you.

Click clack and you're free."

Jesus, himself, wondered too.

What does the New Testament say?

At the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice,

"My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"

At that moment Jesus himself wonders that too.

He is so humiliated,

dispirited, disheartened,

that Jesus himself doubts God.

He lets go.

In fact, Jesus commits suicide.

Until he rises from the dead. Until the resurrection.

And so God...

God damn it, Bogaert!

Leave Ben alone!

It's not the first time I've had to tell you this!

You're going to be in trouble!

Ben's just different from you,

from the below-average members of the class.

Fortunately for him, if you ask me!

But you obviously find it very difficult

to accept that someone is different.

Or is there something you want to share with us?

Maybe your thoughts on the text

you no doubt studied in detail last night?

- Yeah, okay. - Right.

We're dying of curiosity.

Does anyone know what Jesus said

when they took him down from the cross?

"Hey! My feet first!"