It's so rare these days to see a documentary that aspires to be cinematic that Beyond Hatred may seem at first to be slightly better than it is. Director Olivier Meyrou follows the family of 29-year-old murder victim François Chenu, who was beaten to death in a Reims park in 2002 by three skinheads who'd planned to "do an Arab" and settled on a homosexual. As the trial approaches three years later, Chenu's parents and sister try to recall what living through the aftermath of the murder was like, so they can be effective witnesses in court. In one masterful sequence, Chenu's sister recounts in voiceover the details of how she heard about the crime, while Meyrou holds on a lengthy static shot of the now-tranquil-looking park, washed in a light rain. Later, Meyrou shoots the lawyers in truncated close-ups that emphasize their hands or their paperwork, while he shoots the victim's family in medium-to-long shots that show life going on around them.
