15/18 A Place to Heal review – heartfelt docu-realist study of a French teen psychiatric facility

Venice film festivalDirector Cédric Kahn combines compassion with coolly detailed forensic scrutiny in this genre-challenging film which puts a troubled love triangle at the centre of the storyVeteran French director Cédric Kahn brings us a movie in a classic French vein: a docu-realist study of an institution, in this case a state psychiatric facility for teenagers between 15 and 18; with scenes in treatment suites, recreation areas, dorms and interview rooms. It’s something to compare perhaps with Laurent Cantet’s The Class, or Nicolas Philibert’s On the Adamant, or Canadian film-maker Denis Côte’s That Kind of Summer.Kahn’s film is powerful and committed, although sometimes the acting comes close to shouty improv youth theatre. The tone is of course one of compassion, combined with coolly detailed forensic scrutiny, though audiences might be intrigued at Kahn’s use of Purcell’s Funeral Sentences on the soundtrack, music notably used by Kubrick in A Clockwork Orange, a film in which delinquent youth are treated more roughly. Kahn himself plays one of the senior medical staff, part of the gallery of authority figures – doctors, nurses, orderlies, therapists and a nervous intern – who are almost as affected by the institutional drama as the troubled young people themselves. Continue reading...