by Robin Campillo
What possibilities do ‘Act Up’ militants have left to convince the public of the gravity of their cause? Is violence a legitimate way of stopping the pharmaceutical industries from depriving AIDS patients of knowledge and medication? While, at the beginning of the 90s, courageous campaigners sit around a table discussing ways of promoting their cause as well as the latest in scientific knowledge, a spark slowly but surely arouses between newbie Nathan and the revolutionary Sean. Director Robin Campillo’s Cannes Festival sensation portrays desperate but determined protagonists with incredible sensitivity. He offers insight into a complex time which the director himself experienced as a member of Paris’s Act Up movement.