At the film festival where I saw this film, even jaded film veterans were unprepared for its emotional wallop. This is one of the few films dealing with gay persecution during the Nazi era. It works unflinchingly to ground the material in both a French and German Nazi context. Its brutal but honest portrayal tests the viewer's tolerance for the horrific. Yet this film manages to be subtle, nuanced and rich not only through its script, but also in its period depiction, and lastly, in its dramatic execution. Obviously a work of love, this film conveys much of what is worst and best of humanity set in 1942 during the upheaval of Nazi-occupied Paris.
Review of Un amour à taire
