Katell Quillévéré (Un poison violent, 2010; Suzanne, 2013) directed an unusual cast with Bouli Lanners and Tahar Rahim as the doctors who have to tell the shocked parents of a sporting teenage boy in love about the possibilities of organ donation after he has suddenly died. In the meantime, somewhere else, a very ill woman (Anne Dorval) waits anxiously for a donor heart.
Réparer les vivants (based on the novel by Maylis de Kerangal and with a soundtrack by Alexandre Desplat) switches between these angles – of the mourning parents, the terminal patient and professional doctors, each with their own secrets – and weaves them into a single dance of death and life. All the parties involved have to take life-or-death decisions under great pressure of time. But instead of lengthy discussions with summaries of arguments, Quillévéré primarily focuses on the emotional consequences, with flashbacks to the dead boy in the prime of life.
Film details
- Countries of production
- Belgium, France
- Year
- 2016
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2017
- Length
- 104'
- Medium/Format
- DCP
