"Nic Balthazar's feature film debut is a brave and visually symptomatic depiction of the harrowing consequences of social repression, that portrays the life of emotive teenager Ben who lives with his mother and younger brother in the city of Brussel. He has asperger's syndrome and through the years he has been bullied so much that he has escaped into the computer game MMORPG Archlords virtual role-play world where he is a confident and courageous warrior. Ben uses this game to prepare for the unlivable reality at school where he goes under nicknames such as "Frankenstein" and "The man from march", but however hard he tries to adjust he always ends up in front of his computer with his head drained by suicidal and vengeful thoughts. Bens fuse is almost burned out and the only glimpses of faith and hope in a happiness he has never know, rests on is his role-play partner Scarlite.

Former Belgian film critic Nic Balthazar's first film is an adaptation of his own novel "Nothing was all he said", which is inspired by a true story about a 17 year old boy with mild autism who committed suicide by jumping from the Gravensteen castle in Gent because of bullying. "Ben X" is told through the main characters brutally honest voice-over, frequent flashback scenes and sporadic jumps far forward in the story where semi-documentary interviews create ominous forebodings. The film plays out in tree alternative worlds; Ben's social realistic everyday life, the fictive computer game world in Archlord and the divided world inside Ben's head that balances on a thin line between reality and fantasy. Nic Balthazar's experimental filming creates a good pace which is accelerated by a soundtrack that really serves it's purpose considering the films serious description of topics such as alienation, collective bullying, autism, identity crises, suicide and courage.

The movie tittle refers to the dutch phrase "(Ik) ben niks" which means; (I) am nothing. Through Nic Balthazar's creative direction, frequent use of close-ups and Greg Timmerman`s unrestrained performance this movie is able to project the hero's versatile states of mind on the viewer. This is a socially intellectual film about a constantly relevant topics and a intimate character study about a young boy that is repeatedly faced with a reality that forces him to choose between giving up his existence by his own hand or use the last grams of self-respect to retaliate.

Balthazar's character driven socio-drama has similarities with Richard Kelly's "Donnie Darko" (2001) and John Crowley's "Boy A" (2007), but needs no comparison since it stands so well on it's own feet. "Ben X" reaches the miraculous in the last act and this unforgettable scene is intensified by the transcending song "Svefn-g-englar" by Sigur Ros. This is futuristic social realism with visual and auditive force."