''Beyond Hatred'' () is a 2005 French

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

written and directed by Olivier Meyrou. The documentary tells the story of a French couple seeking justice and feeling acceptance after the

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

murder of their

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

son, 29-year-old Francois Chenu. He was murdered by three

white power skinhead White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, music of white skin head white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white natio ...

s in 2002, who beat him severely in the face and threw him into a pond. The attackers were arrested one month after the incident, and Meyrou read about the case on the front page of ''

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

''. He had been wanting to make a film about homophobia for some time, and decided that the Chenu case was very emblematic. The film's

French television Television in France was introduced in 1931, when the first experimental broadcasts began. Colour television was introduced in October 1967 on La Deuxième Chaîne. Digital terrestrial television The digital terrestrial television platform ...

premiere was on 19 June 2005; Eurozoom distributed the film's French

theatrical release An art release is the premiere of an artistic production and its presentation and marketing to the public. Film A film release is the authorization by the owner of a completed film to a public exhibition of the film. The exhibition may be in thea ...

the following year. It was shown at the 2006

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

, the Paris Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and the 2007 London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. It had a limited theatrical release in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

on 15 June 2007, distributed by

First Run Features First Run Features is an independent film distribution company based in New York City. History First Run was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers in order to advance the distribution of independent film. In the 1980s, the company focused ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gave ''Beyond Hatred'' a "fresh" rating of 89% based on 18 reviews.

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave it a "generally favorable" rating of 65% based on five reviews. The documentary won the Teddy Award for Best Documentary at the 2006

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

Notes

External links

* {{Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film 2005 films 2000s French-language films 2005 documentary films Documentary films about violence against LGBTQ people Violence against gay men Violence against LGBTQ people in France Works about white nationalism 2005 directorial debut films 2005 LGBTQ-related films 2000s French films French LGBTQ-related documentary films