a contemplative, almost poetic examination of the proper workings of justice, and an exemplary depiction of a ruined family rebuilt on the foundations of its own humanistic values.
06/13/07 03:48 AM
Beyond Hatred (2005)
89 %
Reviews Counted: 18 Fresh: 16 Rotten:2 Average Rating: 7.3/10
Runtime: 86 mins
Theatrical Release: 30-03-2007
Synopsis:
In this deeply moving, award-winning French documentary, a family reflects on the murder of their 29-year-old son and tries to move beyond feelings of hatred and revenge.
--© First Run Features [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Reviews
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Top Critic It's unlikely to appeal to your mainstream moviegoer, but this French documentary achieves remarkable things with a depressing subject.
03/31/07 04:18 AM
Top Critic Meyrou’s suitably sombre film leaves you with a sense of enormous respect for a couple refusing to be consumed by hatred, prepared instead to offer their forgiveness.
03/27/07 04:15 AM
This deeply moving account of a French family's response to a needless tragedy is all the more effective as it eschews the sensationalism of so much modern reportage.
03/27/07 02:39 AM
Top Critic The settings are mundane, but the exchanges are emotionally raw and so neatly convey both the drama and the grinding daily routine of having to cope with tragedy.
03/20/07 03:16 AM
Top Critic Exemplifies the finest French traditions of dignified rationalism in the pursuit of understanding – in both personal and judicial contexts.
10/30/06 03:18 AM
Top CriticClick to read the article
08/30/07 03:15 AM
Absorbingly covers the 2002 murder in Reims, France, of 29-year-old homosexual François Chenu.
06/25/07 08:39 AM
Director Olivier Meyrou takes a potently oblique vérité approach, and his remarkable level of access reveals the limitations and equivocal mercies of human understanding with uncommon grace.
06/16/07 04:39 AM
Visually, Beyond Hatred is precise, handsome -- even brilliant.
06/16/07 04:39 AM
An example of a film whose style doesn’t merely suit its story but amplifies its meanings.
06/15/07 02:44 PM
Top Critic Through a series of interviews, we see the effect inexplicable hatred and murder has on an ordinary family.
06/15/07 01:04 PM
It all has a cumulatively lulling effect, if a nightmare could ever be described so.
06/14/07 07:32 PM
Paced like a drama, imbued with a spellbinding intimacy, and impressionistic in its visual portrayal of crime and punishment, it follows the 2002 murder of Francois Chenu, a gay man beaten by Nazi skinheads and left to drown in a nearby pond in Reims.
06/14/07 12:01 PM
Thankfully, Meyrou's intent isn't to launch a predictable crusade against homophobia itself, but to quietly understand the factors that molded this young trio into senseless killers.
06/13/07 12:08 PM
Olivier Meyrou may keep his distance from his subjects, but staying out of their way doesn't mean losing sight of their troubles.
06/01/07 07:52 AM
While the documentary is well intended, that of parents' willingness to forgive three punks for murdering their son, the direction is uncreative and dull.
05/31/07 07:24 PM
Au-delà de la haine is perhaps best used as a case study in psychology schools, because it is too convoluted to really make much sense for the general public.
04/25/06 11:14 PM
Movingly accompanies the family of Francois Chenu, a gay man murdered by three skinheads in 2002, down the road to forgiveness.
04/25/06 04:31 PM
Top Critic1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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