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Review #150 of 365
Film: Au-delà de la haine (Beyond Hatred) [NR] 85 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $8.00
Where Viewed: Broadway Performance Hall, Seattle, WA
Seattle International Film Festival
When 1st Seen: 11 June 2006
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Review Dedicated to:
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Au-delà de la haine (Beyond Hatred) premiered this past week at the Seattle International Film Festival. I was able to see the second screening of it last evening due to a scheduled second showing. Unlike French dramas, the documentaries have conclusive endings—I'm only guessing as this was my first French documentary. Directed by Olivier Meyrou, who was not present at this second showing, unfortunately for I would have had some questions, the film covers the story of the events leading up to the trial of a skinhead gang of three young men charged with the crime of killing a young gay man. The first interesting thing to contrast was the way the criminal justice system treated the crime. In the USA, we would have called this a hate crime, prosecutors in many states would have been seeking the death penalty or a minimum of life in prison, and there would have been far less sympathy for the accused. In France, however, it seems the minimum sentence could be 20 years which is what the prosecutors were seeking, and there seemed to be a lot more sympathy for the murderers—all of them over 18 years old, and their parents bore a lot of the blame including, believe it or not, sentences themselves of 30 months later reduced to six months, I believe. In any case, it was fascinating to listen to the people talk about how 20 years was too long a punishment. "How much is a human life worth?" one person asks during the film. "Priceless," is the response he gets. I was sort of confused. How is a priceless life, only worth a 20-year prison sentence? I apologize if something got lost in translation or in the film editing process, but this was how I saw it.
"…there is something compelling about people that can move beyond the hatred and try to see something constructive come out of the ordeal. Nonetheless, overall, the documentary didn't work that well."
Aside from the differences in the way the criminal justice system worked between the USA and France, the film takes a long and meandering look at the coping and grieving process of the family of the murdered young man, François. His parents are grief-stricken. His sister, who had to be the one to tell them their son was gone, was grief-stricken. And yet, through it all, the parents keep a stiff upper lip and try to understand the young men who snuffed out their son's life on a night, when under the influence of alcohol, they decided to go cruising for someone to hurt. The source of their actions was a deep well of hatred against gay people and Arabs. The documentary never gets to their side of the story directly, only by inference. Instead it focuses on the family of François. This, I thought, while a definitely interesting choice by the director, caused the film to fail a bit. This wasn't the only failing aspect, however, the other came in some of the attempts at artistry that simply missed the mark. More than half the film is voice over the scene of the park where the deed was done. So, all we see is people moving through the park, some jogging, some biking, just moving through, and the voice over might be François's sister or mother or a legal official recounting events or emotions. So, rather than seeing the people and their faces and reactions, we see the emotionless park with random people scurrying about. In many ways, the film was quite detached from its subjects. Worse, the structure made it very difficult to tell who the people were—again, this might have been something that was lost a bit in translation. In any case, I think about the films that have been made regarding the strikingly similar Matthew Shepard murder, and I just didn't feel this movie did a very good job of humanizing François nor creating interest in the case. We never really get to know what kind of person he was. Even François's parents seem somewhat inhuman to the extent that they cannot really show how upset they are. In fact, they continue to seek to find a way to understand what has happened and rationalize it. Cultural differences aside, it is powerfully challenging to imagine how parents on any continent wouldn't be angry, vengeful, and filled with rage at these young men who callously killed their son. Still, there is something compelling about people that can move beyond the hatred (hence the title), and try to see something constructive come out of the ordeal. Nonetheless, overall, the documentary didn't work that well.
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Review-lite [150-word cap]
Au-delà de la haine (Beyond Hatred), Directed by Olivier Meyrou, documents the events leading up to the trial of a skinhead gang of French youths charged with killing a young gay man, and illustrates the differences between the way this French trial was handled in contrast to similar ones in the USA. The essence being, as one person in the film asks, "How much is a human life worth?" The response, "Priceless." Which confused me since the killers got the minimum sentence of 20 years for a crime that most certainly was a pre-meditated murder. Also perplexing was why Mr. Meyrou filmed so much of the film as voice over—voices of relatives heard over the background of scene of the crime. The film failed to connect the audience to the life of François or to humanize him. And for that, I would say the film fails as a whole.
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