Heal the Living

Three young men who go surfing before dawn crash on the way home. Seventeen-year-old Simon is declared brain dead. The same day in Paris a woman with heart failure is waiting on the transplant list. The film covers the twenty-four hours in which a heart moves from one body to another. Katell Quillevere directed, from Maylis de Kerangal's novel. The cast includes Tahar Rahim, Emmanuelle Seigner, Anne Dorval and Bouli Lanners. It builds no single protagonist; the camera passes in turn to families, doctors, nurses and the transplant coordinator. Nobody stays at the centre for long. Its interest is in the medical process: how brain death is established, how the family is informed, how the organ is transported, all given in detail. The emotional underlining is kept low and the film does not try to make you cry; the effect comes precisely from that distance. The surfing opening and the operation are visually tied together. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet French drama and multi-character narratives. Who it is not for: anyone unprepared for surgical imagery.