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.
Comment
06/13/07
Beyond Hatred (2005)
89
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:19
Fresh:17
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.3/10
Runtime: 86 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
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
Reviews for Beyond Hatred
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Top CriticIt's unlikely to appeal to your mainstream moviegoer, but this French documentary achieves remarkable things with a depressing subject.
03/31/07
Top CriticMeyrou’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
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
Top CriticThe 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
Top CriticExemplifies the finest French traditions of dignified rationalism in the pursuit of understanding – in both personal and judicial contexts.
10/30/06
Top CriticA documentary that celebrates a cathartic act of forgiveness and reconciliation by a grieving family whose gay son was brutally murdered.
06/29/09
Click to read the article
08/30/07
Absorbingly covers the 2002 murder in Reims, France, of 29-year-old homosexual François Chenu.
06/25/07
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
Visually, Beyond Hatred is precise, handsome -- even brilliant.
06/16/07
An example of a film whose style doesn’t merely suit its story but amplifies its meanings.
06/15/07
Top CriticThrough a series of interviews, we see the effect inexplicable hatred and murder has on an ordinary family.
06/15/07
It all has a cumulatively lulling effect, if a nightmare could ever be described so.
06/14/07
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
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
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
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
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
Movingly accompanies the family of Francois Chenu, a gay man murdered by three skinheads in 2002, down the road to forgiveness.
04/25/06
Top Critic1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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