Home > Collections > Special collections > Gays & Lesbians > The Witnesses

The Witnesses

Les témoins

FEATURE FILM 112'
Drama

Paris, 1984: A group of friends contend with the first outbreak of the AIDS epidemic.
Videos
Print

Directed by

André Téchiné (The Witnesses, Changing Times - Berlin Film Festival 2005: In Official Competition)

Starring

Johan Libéreau
Julie Depardieu (The Yellow Eyes of The Crocodiles, A Secret, Killer by the Lake, Female Agents)
Michel Blanc (César award - Best supporting actor for The Minister, The Witnesses, Cannes Film Festival - Best Actor for Menage)
Sami Bouajila (Omar Killed me, The Witnesses,Days of Glory, See How They Run, Beautiful Lies)
Emmanuelle Béart (8 Women - Silver Berlin Bear 2002 & European Film Award 2002 for Best Actress, The Witnesses, Nathalie, Strayed)

Production

SBS Films

2006 / Original language: French, English / Color / SR SRD / available in hd

Paris, summer 1984.Manu arrives in Paris, where he shares a cheap hotel room with his sister Julie. He strikes up a joyous, chaste friendship with Adrien, a wealthy doctor in his early fifties who opens Manu’s eyes to a different way of life.
On a trip out on a speedboat, Adrien introduces Manu to Sarah and Mehdi, a young couple who have just had their first child.
An unplanned love affair and the onset of the AIDS epidemic - seen by the media and in the collective imagination as a shameful, modern-day plague - upset the ordered tranquility of their individual destinies. Each of them becomes a protagonist in - and witness to - a contemporary tragedy, where those who don’t die may emerge stronger, but not undamaged.