The Witnesses

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This article is about The Witnesses, a French Film. For article on the band Sam Butera and The Witnesses, see Sam Butera

The Witnesses (Les Témoins)

Directed by	André Téchiné
Produced by	Said Ben Said
Written by	André Téchiné Laurent Guyot Vivianne Zingg
Starring	Michel Blanc Emmanuelle Béart Sami Bouajila Julie Depardieu Johan Libéreau
Music by	Philippe Sarde
Cinematography	Julien Hirsch
Editing by	Martine Giordano
Release date(s)	March 7, 2007 (France)
Running time	112 minutes
Language	French
IMDb profile

The Witnesses (Les Témoins) is a French 2007 film directed by André Téchiné. It is set in Paris in 1984, during the outbreak of AIDS.

[edit] Plot

Manu, a young gay man, moves to Paris, where he shares a room with his sister, an opera singer. In the hotel also prostitution takes place. This does not bother Manu, and he has a friendly relationship with some prostitutes. He visits a gay cruising area, and gets befriended with Adrien, an older medical doctor, who is also gay. They do not have sex together: Manu is not sexually attracted to Adrien, and although Adrien would love to have sex with Manu, he is already happy with the friendship. Through Adrien Manu meets Sarah and Mehdi. They have an open relationship. Sarah, a writer, is not very fond of their baby, it disturbs her work. Manu and Mehdi, who is a policeman, fall in love. Because of that and because Manu gets a busy job at a camping site outside Paris, Manu and Adrien do not see each other much anymore, to the regret of Adrien, who earlier offered Manu a job as his personal cook; Manu turned this down because he liked to be independent.

Manu confesses to Adrien that he has been having sex with Mehdi. Adrian is furious and hits Manu on his nose. Adrian discovers spots on Manu's skin; it turns out that he has AIDS. Manu comes in Adrien's care. Mehdi wants to see Adrian, but he refuses. Mehdi is relieved that he has not been infected. He starts using condoms when having sex with Sarah, but does not like them. Mehdi forces his way into the camping site where Manu works, where the camping owner does not want to admit him at Manu's request. Manu shows him his gun, with which he will commit suicide when his illness gets worse. Mehdi secretly takes it with him and throws it in the Seine. Later Manu commits suicide with pills supplied by Adrien for this purpose.