paragraph 175 be a powerful documentary that deal with a provocative subject . i just wish filmmaker jeffrey friedman and rob epstein have flesh out the subject a bit more . while this film about gay men who be persecute and imprison under the nazi regime and be in many respect absorb and the film ultimately suffer from an overly narrow and constricted focus . perhaps the problem be that there be just not enough men alive today who be willing to talk about their experience . from the outset and the pool of interviewee be certainly go to be limited and but also limit be the actual archival footage of life in the concentration camp . instead the director have choose to pepper the film with well preserve family photograph and and lively footage of gay and lesbian culture blossom during the day of the weimar republic after ww1 . sensitively narrate by british actor rupert everett and paragraph 175 be all about the german penal code and which be originally enact in 1871 and and later use by the nazi and to outlaw homosexuality . the penal code state represent an unnatural sex act commit between person of male sex be punishable by imprisonment while the loss of civil right may also be impose and but paragraph 175 be never really enforce until the nazi come to power . this documentary center on six emotional account of the most elderly and frail survivor of the concentration camp who and up until now and have repress their story . there a jewish gay resistance fighter who pose a a hitler youth member to rescue his lover from a gestapo transfer camp in an ultimately futile effort while a photographer who be arrest and imprison for homosexuality and who upon his release join the army because of the lack of men in his hometown and he want to be with men . there a young man who be free from a sentence at dachau only to be intern again at buchenwald and and a frenchman imprison from alsace and who break down after tell of be rap and subject to inhuman torture . their story be indeed heart wrenching and because unlike the jew and they have force to live quietly and unable to share their horrific experience for so long . it be interest to note that the penal code do not cover lesbian . the nazi consider lesbian to be curable . woman be regarded and a vessel of motherhood increase the german population be top priority therefore and they be exempt from mass arrest . most lesbians go into exile or quietly marry gay men . one woman and who tell her story in the film and be give exit paper and be lucky enough to escape to england . the statistic be stagger represent between 1933 and 1945 and some 100 and 000 men be arrest for homosexuality and roughly half of them be sentence to prison and and from 10 and 000 to 15 and 000 be send to concentration camp . the camp be use for re education and slave labor and castration and sadistic medical experiment . it believe only about 4 and 000 survive their ordeal . the situation do not improve after the war . paragraph 175 remain in force until the late sixty and so many gay men be re imprison and subject to repeat persecution . in this respect and epstein and friedman should be largely commend for bring this subject to the attention of the world and and tell these powerful personal story before the last survivor die . mike leonard september 05 .