Actor-turned-filmmaker Cédric Kahn has been wanting to make a movie about psychiatry for years. But when he finally found his way into the subject with “A Place to Heal,” he decided to turn away from doctors and diagnoses and put teenagers — and their startling capacity for resilience — at the center.
Despite tackling eating disorders, suicide attempts, bullying and other forms of psychological distress, it is an unexpectedly luminous film, punctuated by humor and moments of joy, and never looks at its young characters with pity.
“I didn’t want psychiatry or mental illness to be associated with something too deathly,” Kahn told Variety in an interview on the eve of the film’s world premiere on the Lido. “I wanted the film to be very vital, very visceral.”
The film begins with 17-year-old Lucia being brought by police to an adolescent psychiatric ward she already knows well. There she reunites with Eloïse, who has been hospitalized long-term, and meets a group of teenagers facing their own struggles. Kahn plays Etienne, who spearheads the overstretched medical team trying to care for them, until the arrival of a mysterious new patient, Enzo, creates chaos inside the unit.
Before writing the screenplay, Kahn and co-writer Kahina Le Querrec immersed themselves in adolescent psychiatric wards. Le Querrec spent six months inside one unit, while Kahn spent several weeks in another, observing patients, caregivers, consultations and meetings between doctors and families. Their observations provided the raw material for the film’s 12 adolescent patients and 10 caregivers. Kahn and Le Querrec then transformed and combined the stories so that no real patient could recognize themselves.
