From the award-winning director of Fatima (the 2016 Cesar winner for Best Film), Proud is a three-part episodic cinema event that details a chronology of tolerance and a portrait of one family through changing times. In 1981, it was still illegal to be gay in France. Today, same-sex marriage is recognized and has paved the way for legalizing the adoption of children by LGBTQ families. Proud tells the story of Charles, Victor and Diego, three generations of the same family who represent the seismic social changes that took place in just three decades. 

Episode 1

May 1981. Victor, 17, divides his time between his girlfriend, Aurélie, and the building site where he helps out his father, Charles, the site manager. On the site, Victor is sent into a spin by Selim, the foreman’s son. Their relationship is impetuous, driven by the instincts of youth. Despite being the first to defend the values of openness and tolerance embodied by the Left in this period of presidential elections, Charles doesn’t want to think his own son is different. Charles throws Selim off the site and reports his behavior to his father. By way of reprisal, Selim gets his own back on Victor. He doesn’t want to go against the expectations of his family or society. Instead, he rewrites history. At high school, the rumor starts to spread that Victor is different than the others. On his own, Victor meets Serge.

Episode 2

September 1998. Victor and Serge are leading a quiet life as a couple. Victor has become a talented architect, and remains close to Aurélie, who is the single-mother of a baby to which he is godfather. On the face of it, everything is going fine. Yet the passion between Victor and Serge has gradually faded over time. Serge is very involved running an LGBT charity, fighting for equal rights, all while dealing with his own health issues being HIV+. Meanwhile, Victor is in charge of his first project. On the building site, he runs into Selim, who has become a foreman. Time stands still. Selim says he regrets his behavior back then, but is happy with the choice he made: He’s married and has started a family. Meeting this old lover destabilizes Victor, and awakens his teenage desire.

Episode 3

January 2013. Victor is an accomplished architect. He never has much time for his son, Diego, a kid with a strong will who’s in his final year at high school, with a girl he’s wanting to date. Together, with Serge, they form a kind of undefined blended family. When Diego is called in by the principal for fighting with his classmate, Paul, who made racist and homophobic comments, it is Serge who comes in to receive the lecture from the headmistress. As in any father/son relationship, Victor and Diego sometimes have a hard time getting along. Diego has forged a secret bond with his grandfather, Charles, who still has a strained relationship with Victor. Despite his solitude since his wife Martine died, Charles is clearly not part of Victor’s life until issues are resolved. Victor asks Serge to Marry him.

OPENS IN VIRTUAL CINEMA FRI, JUNE 19 in select cities though Kino Marquee, a new initiative that creates “virtual cinemas” for temporarily closed independent theaters. Local audiences support their community’s theater in these uncertain times by buying a virtual “ticket” to watch the film. Their ticket purchases directly support their local art house as all revenue is being shared between distributor and exhibitor, just as if they bought their ticket at the theater’s box office. Kino Marquee currently works with over 350 art house theaters across the nation.

More Pride movie selections from Kino Lorber can be found here.

 

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist with a focus on travel, lifestyle, entertainment and hospitality. He has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He enjoys discovering delicious eats, tasting spirited treats, and being mesmerized by musical beats.