Thom Vander Beken
Belgium, Netherlands | 2017 | 92 min
World premiere
Languages : French, English
Subtitles : English, French
Quentin is 27 years old. For the last ten years, he has been in a coma. In the hospital room where his mother brought him, one waits for the verdict of the medical staff to find out if there is still hope for improvement. Otherwise it will perhaps be necessary to let him go... The filmmaker says: “In 2012, I read an interview in which they spoke of the research undertaken by the Coma Science Group in Liège, per which 40% of patients in a coma are misdiagnosed, since they still have a sort of consciousness and can hear sounds, have feelings, pick up smells. This story gave me the possibility of dealing with subjects that are dear to me. Who decides if a life has meaning? How far can science go? Who can decide if a human life may end?” The film tackles these questions in the silence of the medical analyses, in the conversations between friends and relatives, in the emptiness of the room. In a very wide frame, the camera allows an invisible world to float past where everything is still breathing: the memory of the past, disappointed hopes, an implacable fate... A film made of strong emotions that is not to be missed.
Luciano Barisone
