"On a September night in 2002, three skinheads roam through a park in Reims. They are after an Arab, but when they encounter a homosexual, they attack him intstead. Twenty-nine-year-old François Chenu defends himself and calls his attackers cowards. Severely injured, he drowns in a nearby pond. His murderers are arrested quickly. Olivier Meyrou did not want to make a documentary about homophobia, but a universal film about tolerance and intolerance. The result persists in memory. The people portrayed in the film speak with great dignity: François' parents, his brothers and sisters, the family's attorney. Meyrou gives the impression that he enters the minds of the people he films. While the mother works in the kitchen, the viewer hears her say that she is afraid of the trial, of physical proximity to her son's tormenters, that she is afraid she may lose her rage and find them "human". Olivier Meyrou takes the time to speak with those taking part in the trial. In the course of proceedings, the family changes. The grief is gradually replaced by a desire to understand the murderers, who come from socially and culturally underprivileged families and have been exploited by right-wing radical groups. The film accompanies the family's efforts to forgive them. Seldom has such a humanistic film been seen about such a complex theme: hatred and the need for justice and forgiveness." Vincent Josse
Production: Hold Up Films, Paris; Miss Luna Films, Boulogne; France 5, France 2, CNC
World Sales: Films Distribution
Cinematographer: Jean Marc Bouzou
Composer: François Eudes Chanfrault
Sound: Sébastien Savine, Yolande Decarsin, Gildas Mercier
Editor: Cathie Dambel
Format/screen ratio: 35mm (shot on Super 16mm), 1:1.66, Color
Running time: 86 minutes, 24 frames/sec.
Language: French
