A Love to Hide is a haunting, gut-wrenching, and heart-breaking love story

by Nevin Jefferson SGN A&E Writer

A Love to Hide (Un amour à taire)

In French with English Subtitles 102 minutes Cast: Bruno Todeschini, Charlotte De Turckheim, Jeremie Renier, Louise Monot, Michel Jonasz Director: Christian Faure Screenwriter: Pascal Fontanille, Samantha Mazeras

It's springtime in Paris, 1942. The Nazis have occupied Europe and chaos and confusion rule. Handsome Jean (Jérémie Renier,) is a dutiful son who runs the family 's laundry business during the day. By night, he's in the arms of Philippe (Bruno Todeschini), who is an agent of the resistance. These Gay lovers must hide their relationship from their families and everyone else, or they will fall victim to the Vichy persecution of the “third sex.” A young Jewish girl looking to escape the clutches of the Third Reich—after seeing her parents and sister brutally slain while attempting to make their way to England—is taken in by Jean and Philippe, who nurse her back to health.

Jean, a childhood friend of the young girl's, tells her he loves her —if only to give her the will to survive. Philipe becomes jealous and all his insecurities come to the surface. However, the two give her shelter, a job, protection, and a new identity as an employee of his family's laundry business.

Depicted with genuine emotion, the story of the three is told mainly through the eyes of Jean. Despite the ever-increasing Nazi presence, the trio manages to live safely together for a while. Of course, everything takes a turn for the worse when Jean's brother Jacques (Nicholas Gob), the black sheep of the family, returns from jail for smoking marijuana.

Jacques brings unwanted attention into their lives. While he realizes that Jean is the only person who loves him unconditionally, they do not see eye to eye on most things. Jacques sells the addresses of Jews who haven't picked up their laundry, so that their houses can be robbed. He becomes a Nazi collaborator and falls madly in love with Sara.

After Jean and Jacques parents announce that they're leaving the business to Jean, Jacques is filled with envy, jealousy, and rage. Their relationship is strained when Jacques learns that his brother is a homosexual. Jean begs his brother not to stop loving him and does his best to convince him that his homosexuality was not a choice. In a rash move to prove his superiority, Jacques unleashes a devastating chain of events that will change all of their lives forever.

Jacques asks his partner in crime to have Jean arrested, held in jail for one day, then bought to the Laundromat. The Gestapo would tell his parents that Jacques was the one responsible for saving Jean from going into the concentration camp. This heroic act would have Jacques parents seeing him in a new light. This would also make Sara fall in love with him. This plan bites Jacques in the ass and disgraces the whole family after the Gestapo arrives and announces that Jean has been exposed as a member of the “third sex” and is accused of having an affair with a Nazi soldier.

Jean is tortured, beaten, and is forced to look at pictures of the Nazi soldier who committed suicide and whom has a bullet in his temple. Jacques does get the family business along with other dirty dealings. Jean's spirit and strength is broken when he learns that it was his beloved brother who turned him in. Sara watches in horror as her homosexual protector is forced into a Nazi labor camp.

Sara witnesses the death of Philipe after he tries to escape being arrested as an agent of the resistance. Jacques is relentless in getting Sara to marry him and be a part of his life. She agrees to marry him to keep her cover and to help rescue Jean from the concentration camp. At the concentration camp, Jean makes a friend wearing a pink triangle and who's being “re-educated.” After witnessing the death of his friend, Jean puts on the man's uniform bearing the pink triangle and tells the Nazi Guards to kill him too. They send him to Dachaut, a camp that was become known as the epitome of evil.

A Love to Hide is a haunting, gut-wrenching, and heart-breaking love story that celebrates the tenaciousness of the spirit and serves as a reminder to stand up for ourselves no matter what it takes. The experience of the homosexuals was arguably the worst of all the victims of the Nazis. The few who survived could still be prosecuted in Germany and France many years after they were liberated from the camps. The relief effort ignored their plight and only a few survived long enough for their stories to be appreciated, decades later.

The 1871 German law that criminalized homosexuality was revised by the Nazis in 1935 and remained on the books in East Germany until 1967. The Nazi version of the law was repealed in West Germany in 1969 but not eliminated until 1973. Freedom for Gay men was finally acheived after reunification.

The performances are commanding. Jean and Philippe play off of each other with extraordinary chemistry and Sarah's profile in courage carries every scene she's in. Director Christian Faure shows every cruel, heartless, and evil act -- along with the atrocities and devastation that war brings. The cinematography is refined and the visual affects leaves you in total awe. We witness the horrors that Gay people faced in the not-to-long ago past. The film also pays strong attention to details, as the Nazi occupation of France is rendered in all its infamous glory.