Beyond Hatred
2005, France
Director: Olivier Meyrou
Writer: Olivier Meyrou
Producers: Christophe Girard, Katharina Marx
Genre: Documentary
DVD Distributor: First Run Features
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 85 minutes
Release Date: May 20, 2008

There’s an inherent danger in exposing extremist viewpoints. Even when portrayed negatively, mass diffusion of such philosophies can inadvertently create sympathizers, adherents, and, eventually, internet porn. Strip clubs keep German WWII uniforms on hand for a reason. But Beyond Hatred, a French documentary about the 2002 murder of a gay man by skinheads, does its best to present its issues without risking accidental glorification.

Directed by Olivier Meyrou, the documentary features no interviews with the murderers of 29-year-old Francois Chenu, beaten and drowned in Rheims park. There are no reenactments, no footage from newscasts. Instead, the film focuses almost entirely on the victim’s family, and their sometimes surprising reactions during the trial of Chenu’s three attackers. Of course, such a stance immediately eradicates any illusions of impartiality, but Beyond Hatred is less a piece of journalism than it is a requiem. By denying the perpetrators a pulpit to expound their beliefs or even explain their actions, the film makes them as powerless and mute as the marginalized victims they terrorize. The film, then, revolves around somber mourning as opposed to hot-blooded ideological debate, like quietly listening to Joy Division at a Palestinian checkpoint.

That’s not to say that the film couldn’t use a burst of energy now and again. While Mayrou’s calm, complacent camera perfectly suits the tone, the sixth or seventh marathon-length shot of joggers circling the murder scene suggests that the film is wallowing in laudanum abuse rather than melancholy. And the lack of even a single image of the three accused seems dismissively dehumanizing, and invariably causes the film to raise more questions than it does answers. Still, as a tone poem for a greiving family, the film hits the right note, without sounding a rallying cry.