Fiertés (French Mini Series) [Proud]

Let me just say it right out the bat. This is one of best mini series out there that I have seen. I mean there are a few, but this one is right up there with some of the must watch stuff out there. I am shocked how this one skipped my radar and I hadn't seen it so far. Better late than never. It has also helped me end the dry spell of having not seen anything really good in a long long time. Trust French to come up with either stuff that really goes off the top of your head or something diametrically opposite that touches your heart to the core.

Proud is Philippe Faucon’s three-part miniseries about fathers and sons living through three watershed moments in French LGBT history. The first episode is centered in 1981, where 17 year old Victor has decided to work with his father Charles at the construction site. Charles sees Victor with another boy Selim and he cannot digest his son being gay. Charles is a left wing politically liberal guy but refuses to allow those principles to play out in his family members’ actual lives. After giving into the secrecy, Victor has had enough and he officially comes out. Victor meets an older Serge and the two soon start a relationship with Victor leaving home the day he turns 18, much to the displeasure of his father. Year is now 1999. Victor is a successful architect, together for 18 years with Serge in a very loving yet open relationship. Serge works in a non-profit support group for LGBT and is HIV+. Charles has come around in years to accept his son being gay and be with his partner Serge, but draws the line at supporting Victor in his pursuit to adopt a child. Since gay men are tactically blacklisted to adopt, Victor has to play straight with Serge temporarily moving out, the last straw in their already strained relationship. They officially break up when the adoption process fails through. Meanwhile Victor also reconnects with his first love Selim and it shows their struggle as well. But all is well and finally Victor manages to adopt a child Diego as a single parent. Episode 3 moves to 2003 and is centered around Diego, his relationship with Victor and also how Charles has evolved. Diego is a straight latino activist whereas Victor is turning conservative. Its not very clear if Serge and Victor are back together but Serge is very much a parent figure with his HIV getting worse. Here, Victor struggles with becoming his father, shying away from fighting for his rights, and struggling to support his son just as his father once struggled to support him. We see Diego's struggles and the fathers and sons coming around in the time for each other with other interesting characters around them.

Choosing three distinct timelines, the makers have tried to cover important milestones in gay life and politics to AIDS to legal union to legalizing gay marriage. But despite that, the focus has been very much on all the central characters and their development. The relationships shown in the series are so real that its scary. There are no over the top outburst moments, very normal conversations where disappointments and fights happen but they feel real. Character arcs jump timeline but very cleverly their development happens and they grow over a period of time. Charles, especially, grows remarkably over the course of the series, transforming from a disapproving father into a loving grandfather, finding strength in his ability to accept his shortcomings. This series covers everything. Yeah, you may think that it is stereotypical with homophobic father, the AIDS dying lover but believe or not, these are all the realities. Think of the year that this is shown and what the gay community in general was going through. No doubt, Victor is the center of all this. A confused teenager questioning himself, to accepting it, toeing proud of who he is and being with the true love of his life. With changing times, he wants a family and how this small wish triggers events, which could have easily made this into a major sob story but things are shown very practical. Serge and Victor's relationship was too good, it almost made me feel envious and that doesn't happen often. They were both so mature about every single thing. They broke up but still co parented their son and felt a sort of moral responsibility towards each other respecting the long time they have spent with each other. The third episode focusing on Diego also shows many interesting aspects as to how children of gay parents think, what they could go through and most importantly what society in general may treat them as. These three men live a paradox: when society shifts, their most private selves are also transformed. As I said before, the characters are real and authentic, never fitting into a societal box easily. The series, under the careful hand of the director, features family members and friends living, struggling and fighting for their rights. The three episodes cover so much in a such a short time. I was also quite excited that they decided to bring back grown Selim and his new equation with Victor. It was a nice touch and again very realistic.

The one drawback I would say is that the female characters was not etched out properly including Victor's supportive mother. She was the quite figure just lurking around there and so was Victor's female friend and Diego's girlfriend. I wish some more time was dedicated to create their character arcs more interesting too. Having said that, this series and its three episodes are a reminder of legal and physical threats. With beautiful actors doing a very fantastic job, superlative direction, this series is about a family growing with times. They change, learn to accept who they are and who their loved ones are, forgiving things that are sometimes difficult to overlook. Also, its beautiful love story of two men, who remained there for each other, come what way. This is an absolute MUST WATCH. (9/10)