The 11 year old Jeroen (Maarten Smit) goes to Friesland just before the famine winter because there is more food there. Frightened and alone, jeroen finds himself living with a family of farmers.

However, he soon settles in with the farmer and his family as well as the farmer's family, Jeroen also has a friend in another boy evacuee, Jan.

Jeroen is coming of age during this time in the country. As his friends become interested in girls, Jeroen finds himself drawn to males. And, sadly, Jeroen is without anyone to explain his sexual feelings.

Finally, when liberating troops arrive (not the imagined Americans but Canadians) Jeroen finds himself drawn to Walt (Andrew Kelley), a young canadian soldier a few years older than himself.

Walt, spots Jeroen as "special" and befriends the boy. Jeroen blooms like a flower in the sun! The two develope a comfortable friendship.

A few things start falling into place for Jeroen as he gets the whole package. Friendship, companionship, acceptance, a little time at the wheel of Walt's jeep, resting in Walt's strong arms waiting for clothes to dry, the electricity of a man's touch, sensual kissing as an expression of love, and ultimately Jeroen's first sexual expierience. Jeroen is the happiest boy in the world, and rightly so.

The relationship with Walt can't last and the soldier is soon sent on to his next assignment. Devastated by Walt's disappearance, Jeroen eventually returns to Amsterdam and his family at the end of the war. He keeps on searching for Walt but never finds him.

"For a lost soldier" tells of a brief relationship between a young boy and a young soldier at the end of WW II.

It is a good movie to watch. Some may question the reason for Walt to get into a sexual relationship with an 11 year old.

But try to see it as two people discovering their feelings toward each other. The story really focuses more on the friendship and the rites of passage of a boy growing up.

World War II must have been a terrifying experience for many of the children of Europe, especially when you are sent far away from your family and surrounded by people and places you don’t know.

Never being graphic, this film delicately deals with themes of love, loneliness, friendship and abandonment.

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