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France · 2005
1h 26m
Director Olivier Meyrou
Starring
Genre Documentary
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In 2002, three French neofascist skinheads beat Francois Chenu, a young gay man, and drowned him in a pond. In this deeply moving, award-winning documentary, his family reflects on the murder of their son, and tries to move beyond feelings of hatred and revenge.
It's easy to find fault with the film's maudlin score, overlong static shots devoid of the abstract poetry they infer, and a second half that pursues legal rather than personal ramifications at a trial where cameras aren't allowed. But, following the family's path to closure, we'll forgive.
Meyrou follows the family through the three day trial, the verdict and its aftermath, but the perpetrators remain a mystery.
It's so rare these days to see a documentary that aspires to be cinematic that Beyond Hatred may seem at first to be slightly better than it is.
A recently widowed Pakistani father and son are forced to make some tough – and dangerous – moral choices.