Repairing the Living on France 4: a great humanist film carried by an all-star cast (review)

A superb adaptation of the novel by Maylis de Kerangal by Katell Quillévéré.

Released in cinemas exactly ten years ago, Repair the Living is rebroadcast this Thursday evening on France 4, and will be available for streaming the next day on the France Télévisions website. First recommends this film to you Katell Quillévéré, notably worn by Tahar Rahim, who has since signed the series The World of Tomorrow (with Hélié Cisterne) and The time to love,

It begins with a leap into the void: Simon leaves his girlfriend’s room before dawn by jumping out of the window of a house overlooking the city. There follows a long descent in bends to the sea. Repair the living opens with a descending movement that is both very concrete and highly symbolic, which culminates in a sublime but distressing surfing scene, prophetic of a drama to come. It begins, therefore, with a descent into hell, that brought about by a brutal and unbearable death, lingering in limbo – the hospital where the living in suffering wander but where those whose mission is to “repair” them are also active. And continues on an upward slope, that, literally, of a rebirth (…)