Disparus

Based on a true story, this tense, erotic thriller captures the wild atmosphere of Paris’ bohemian avant-garde and the mood of uncertainty in radical political circles during the years preceding World War II. The young Jewish poet, blue-collar printer and Trotskyist revolutionary Alfred Katz falls in love with Mila, the famous Man Ray model. He also befriends a handsome and ambitious Stalinist revolutionary, Félix, one of Mila’s lovers. Their ménage à trois has a strong homo-erotic component. But when the pro-Stalin French Communist Party imposes a crackdown on Trotskyists, the relationship between Félix and Katz shifts, and Katz suddenly finds himself in danger. The film alternates between the late 1930s and 1989 when a Parisian woman, Louise, finds a diary that belonged to her murdered lover, Katz’s son. She is thrust into the role of detective, bravely untangling a political and romantic intrigue that still arouses violent passions.