Sometimes, movies can really give you some much-needed perspective. While gay rights in this country still have a ways to go, I am so glad to be an American gay man in 2006 (and actually writing a gay-themed blog) and not a French gay man in 1942. That is the year in which the moving period drama, "A Love to Hide" is set. I recommend that every gay person see this film, released on DVD Dec. 5. In French with English subtitles, this sweeping and unforgettable wartime epic about gay life and love in Nazi-occupied Europe was easily the best movie I saw at last summer's Outfest, the one movie that made me cry. See it and you will understand why. You will understand what it was like to be gay in another time and place and feel grateful for what we have even as gays and lesbians continue to fight for full equality in this country.

In "A Love to Hide," two gay lovers, Philippe (Jeremie Renier) and Jean (Bruno Todeschini), living in Paris hide their love from their families and from the occupying Nazi army. Philippe works with the Resistance while Jean runs his family business, a dry cleaner. When Jean’s childhood sweetheart Sara shows up their door, her family murdered by the Gestapo, they take her in and nurse her back to health. Philippe gets her a fake ID and Jean obtains her a job at the cleaners.

Even though Sara still loves the handsome and sweet Phillipe, she accepts his relationship with Jean. But it's still quite a struggle keeping their ragtag family safe from the Nazis. Jean’s brother is a collaborator and his dad a sympathizer. Tragedy closes in as Jean is accused of being a member of the “third sex� and having an affair with a Nazi officer. It is an important, beautifully-acted and heart-breaking film. I cannot recommend it enough or give enough praise to the filmmakers who provide such strong attention to details as the Nazi occupation of France from scenes in a ‘40s gay bar to the papable anxiety everyone was forced to live under.

"A Love to Hide" is released by Picture This! Home Video.