Notre corps

At the Tenon hospital in Paris, Claire Simon (Guest of Honour, VdR 2018) films a mostly female world, in a ward where women’s fates intertwine: abortions, endometriosis, medically assisted reproduction, gender transition, motherhood, cancer... She sets up her camera in consulting rooms and rooms, gathering people’s medical and personal stories, while observing what happens in the space between patients and carers. This is where these women express their hopes, desires and fears as they navigate their life paths. Claire Simon manages to film the ineffable, the synapses at work between the patients who each carry their own story, and the medical staff who carry thousands. Then, in an improbable twist of fate, the filmmaker’s own path will cross that of these women. Even then, the power of cinema seems to be able to act on life itself. Here, at the heart of this “crossroads of destinies”, Claire Simon has made one of her most essential films, highlighting the beauty of humanity, be it in the first or very last moments of our lives.

Aurélien Marsais