This film was released 6th April 2018, and is no longer screening.

Set in the ‘90s at the height of France’s AIDS epidemic, Robin Campilo’s (Eastern Boys, 2014) urgent film draws directly from his own experiences as a member of Act Up, the grassroots activist group, his story focusing on their campaign of agitation against a pharmaceutical company that refuses to reveal its findings on potentially effective new drugs. Against this backdrop the HIV positive Sean, one of the groups’ founders begins a tentative romance with gentle newcomer Nathan, who has tested negative for the virus. 120 BPM is by turns a beautifully observed love story and a fiercely engaged political work that simmers with a quiet anger.

Notes by David O Mahony.