South Africa / 2011 / 98 mins / Dir: Oliver Hermanus
Langauge: Afrikaans (with English subtitles)
Cast: Deon Lotz, Charlie Keegan, Michelle Scott, Albert Maritz, Roeline Daneel & Sue Diepeveen

A dark and provocative examination of repression, torment, and obsessive desire.

Francois lives a skillfully controlled, well managed life, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Father of two daughters and a devoted husband, he is wholly unprepared when a chance encounter unravels his clean and ordered existence. 23-year-old Christian is the son of a long lost friend. By all accounts he is the personification of a handsome young man in the prime of his life. Francois is so disarmed by the young man that it instantly ignites within him an all consuming infatuation, passion and misplaced lust.

Despite his carefully concealed disgust for himself, Francois pours out the lost emotions he has despised all his life in what becomes a desperate attempt at taking from the world that which he has always secretly wanted: Happiness.

Beauty won the Queer Palm award at Cannes 2011.