What could be worse? An invisible virus for which there is no cure. Your body’s ability to fight disease is lost. Death is inevitable, as the search for a cure is tied up in pharmaceutical purgatory. Moments of intimacy become dangerous. Nobody seems to care that you and your friends are dying. Perhaps the only thing worse than being sick is being healthy and watching everyone you love slowly waste away.

Director, Robin Campillo and co-writer Philippe Mangeot draw  from their own experiences in the 90’s as activists for AIDS awareness with the group ACT UP PARIS. Having lived through the situation, Campillo requires little-to-no research in conjuring up an authentic and personal story about an important and harrowing time in LGBTQ history.

BPM bears some resemblance to another film written by Campillo, The Class, the 2008 Palme D’or winner about political and social unrest in a Parisian middle school. Much of BPM takes place at ACT UP’s weekly meetings, where a cast of talented, young, French actors debate and discuss their plans for peaceful protest against a pharm corporation that is delaying the findings of a study on a new AIDS drug. Campillo cuts back and forth between the protests and the discussion. Amidst snapping fingers and hisses, they argue about how best to move forward. The energy in the room is consistently electric and I began to feel immersed in this small world.

Nathan (Arnaud Valois) is a new recruit to the group and one of the only gay men who isn’t HIV positive. He begins a relationship with Sean, (a superb performance by Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) an outspoken and passionate young man who has been Positive for a couple years. Their courtship takes place in a night club, the flashing lights and mess of bodies fades out of focus and we in stead watch the sparkling dust particles flying through the air, shining in the bright strobes. We see an infected cell. At home the men make love and discuss their sexual history. Sean tells Nathan how he got infected, Nathan tells him of a close call with a lover who became ill.

Despite the foreboding presence of death and the outrage directed at capitalist pharmaceutical manufacturers, BPM is a joyous celebration of life. The love and affection that is shared by the activists, their excitement and nervousness as they stage a potentially dangerous protest and the inevitable mourning that comes when another in their number succumbs to the diesease, paints a picture of a close-knit family bound together by a mutual cause and a fatal, ticking clock.

The film is long. 144 minutes. Somehow the cast is able to hold your attention without changing the debate/protest formula throughout. As the film reaches a conclusion, we are left with a deeply personal story about saying goodbye to a loved one. Again Campillo apparently draws from personal experience here and it’s hard not to feel the heartache and gratitude that he is dealing with. This is a film about protest though, and a shot of the Seine river red with blood is a powerful, sobering image. A delightful, crowd-pleasing film and an informative look into a real episode in our recent history. Great stuff.