{"id":613962,"date":"2026-09-04T06:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/613962\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T06:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:40:08","slug":"cedric-kahn-on-his-venice-competition-film-a-place-to-heal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/613962\/","title":{"rendered":"C\u00e9dric Kahn on His Venice Competition Film ‘A Place to Heal’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tActor-turned-filmmaker C\u00e9dric Kahn<\/a> has been wanting to make a movie about psychiatry for years. But when he finally found his way into the subject with \u201cA Place to Heal,\u201d he decided to turn away from doctors and diagnoses and put teenagers \u2014 and their startling capacity for resilience \u2014 at the center.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite 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.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t want psychiatry or mental illness\u00a0to\u00a0be associated with something too deathly,\u201d Kahn told Variety in an interview on the eve of the film\u2019s world premiere on the Lido. \u201cI wanted the film\u00a0to\u00a0be very vital, very visceral.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film begins with 17-year-old Lucia being brought by police\u00a0to\u00a0an adolescent psychiatric ward she already knows well. There she reunites with Elo\u00efse, who has been hospitalized long-term, and meets\u00a0a\u00a0group of teenagers facing their own struggles. Kahn plays Etienne, who spearheads the overstretched medical team trying\u00a0to\u00a0care for them, until the arrival of\u00a0a\u00a0mysterious new patient, Enzo, creates chaos inside the unit. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore 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.\u00a0Their observations provided the raw material for the film\u2019s 12 adolescent patients and 10 caregivers. Kahn and Le Querrec then transformed and combined the stories so that no real patient could recognize themselves. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat Kahn encountered during that immersion was an unexpected vitality and the ways in which the adolescents themselves became part of one another\u2019s recovery.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey become\u00a0a\u00a0family. They\u00a0heal\u00a0each other too. It\u2019s not only the institution that treats them. It\u2019s the fact that they\u2019re there collectively at\u00a0a\u00a0moment of enormous fragility,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a0morbid impulse and\u00a0a\u00a0vital impulse. It\u2019s the coexistence of those two things that makes that\u00a0place\u00a0so particular.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMental health among young people has become an increasingly urgent and universal conversation, from France to the U.S. and beyond. The film\u2019s timeliness became clear during the casting process. Kahn was struck by how much the teenagers he auditioned knew about psychiatric illness. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey talked about it without any taboo and without any negative preconceptions,\u201d Kahn says. \u201cI remember that when we were teenagers, people who had psychiatric problems were\u00a0a\u00a0little bit freaks. It\u2019s much more accepted today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKahn modeled the character of Etienne, the blunt chief psychiatrist running the ward, on the head of the psychiatric unit he observed while preparing the film. \u201cHe treated the people he was speaking\u00a0to\u00a0as intelligent teenagers who were capable of questioning themselves. Without condescension. That\u2019s what matters,\u201d he says. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIronically, Kahn says he has never undergone psychoanalysis himself \u2014 though when he saw his performance in the editing room, he was struck by how convincing he looked as a psychiatrist. \u201cI think it\u2019s the face, the voice, I don\u2019t know,\u201d he jokes. \u201cI have a doctor\u2019s face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is something of Kahn the filmmaker in Etienne as well. \u201cAs\u00a0a\u00a0director, I\u2019m\u00a0a\u00a0little like that too,\u201d he says. \u201cI can say\u00a0to\u00a0an actor: \u2018What you did wasn\u2019t good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEspecially famous actors. It\u2019s more fun,\u201d Kahn jokes, acknowledging that stars are not always accustomed\u00a0to\u00a0such candor.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is\u00a0a\u00a0particularly revealing role for Kahn, who alongside his directing career has quietly become one of France\u2019s most discreet yet beloved character actors. He has worked for filmmakers including Xavier Beauvois, Elie Wajeman and Joachim Lafosse and memorably played himself in \u201cCall My Agent!\u201d opposite Isabelle Huppert. \u201cA\u00a0Place\u00a0to\u00a0Heal\u201d marks only the second time he has taken\u00a0a\u00a0major role in one of his own films, after 2019\u2019s \u201cF\u00eate de famille,\u201d which starred Catherine Deneuve and Emmanuelle Bercot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKahn is pulling double duty in Venice this year: alongside the world premiere of \u201cA\u00a0Place\u00a0to\u00a0Heal\u201d in competition, he also appears in Alexandre Smia\u2019s feature debut \u201cJupiter,\u201d\u00a0a\u00a0real-time political thriller playing out of competition.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs\u00a0a\u00a0director, Kahn has long navigated between starry ensembles and the discovery of young talent. Anthony Bajon delivered\u00a0a\u00a0breakthrough performance in his 2018 drama \u201cThe Prayer,\u201d winning the Silver Bear for best actor at the Berlin Film Festival.\u00a0His biggest success as a director to date came with \u201cThe Goldman Case,\u201d the gripping courtroom drama that opened Cannes\u2019 Directors\u2019 Fortnight in 2023 and went on to win Arieh Worthalter the C\u00e9sar for best actor.\u00a0Venice has also been a recurring stop throughout Kahn\u2019s career: his debut \u201cBar des rails\u201d played the Lido\u2019s Critics\u2019 Week in 1992, \u201cL\u2019Ennui\u201d competed in 1998 and \u201cMaking Of\u201d screened out of competition in 2023. \u201cA Place to Heal\u201d marks his fourth trip to the festival and a return to competition.<\/p>\n

With \u201cA\u00a0Place\u00a0to\u00a0Heal,\u201d Kahn built an ensemble composed mostly of newcomers. Teen casting director Marl\u00e8ne Serour and her team auditioned more than 1,000 young people. Kahn then personally saw more than 100 before selecting the 12 teenagers who appear in the film.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the few with previous screen experience are Malou Khebizi, who broke out in Agathe Riedinger\u2019s \u201cWild Diamond,\u201d which competed at Cannes in 2024, and Patience Munchenbach (\u201cThe Swarm\u201d). <\/p>\n

\n\tFor all the immediacy of the subject, however, Kahn was determined not\u00a0to\u00a0turn \u201cA\u00a0Place\u00a0to\u00a0Heal\u201d into\u00a0a\u00a0movie specifically about today\u2019s youth and deliberately stripped away many of the markers that could have tied the film too closely\u00a0to\u00a0the post-pandemic era.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe didn\u2019t over-update the film around screens, eco-anxiety, lockdowns and all that,\u201d he says. \u201cCinema isn\u2019t the same rhythm as current events,\u201d he says. His ambition is for \u201cA\u00a0Place\u00a0to\u00a0Heal\u201d\u00a0to\u00a0be relatable years from now. \u201cI hope that even in 10 years, we\u2019ll look at it as\u00a0a\u00a0contemporary film,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs always in Kahn\u2019s films, this movie also has a social dimension. It looks at the pressures facing France\u2019s public psychiatric system at\u00a0a\u00a0time when demand for psychiatric care among young people continues\u00a0to\u00a0grow.\u00a0But the film also celebrates the strength of French public hospital system: everyone comes through the same doors.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe public hospital welcomes everyone, regardless of origin or social class,\u201d he says. \u201cPsychiatric illness cuts across classes. It affects absolutely every layer of the population.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the film is rooted in social realism, it also\u00a0gradually moves away from the almost documentary-like observation of its opening toward something more romantic, as the young characters push against the walls enclosing them.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA Place to Heal\u201d was lensed by \u201cThe Goldman Case\u201d cinematographer Patrick Ghiringhelli who shot with three cameras simultaneously, allowing different members of the group\u00a0to\u00a0remain on camera.<\/p>\n

\n\tKahn says that shift in tone throughout the film follows the adolescents\u2019 own overwhelming desire\u00a0to\u00a0escape the institution \u2014 even though, paradoxically, some become afraid\u00a0to\u00a0leave when their discharge finally comes. \u201cI love when I have the feeling, even for the spectator, that it\u2019s the characters who are writing the screenplay,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThat impulse ultimately brings the film back\u00a0to\u00a0the idea Kahn had from the beginning: whatever darkness he depicts, cinema has\u00a0to\u00a0leave the audience somewhere\u00a0to\u00a0go. \u201cI can\u2019t conceive of\u00a0a\u00a0film if there isn\u2019t\u00a0a\u00a0small window,\u00a0a\u00a0little glimmer,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t even have the strength\u00a0to\u00a0make one otherwise.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA\u00a0Place\u00a0to\u00a0Heal\u201d is produced by Ad Vitam Films, with Ad Vitam handling French distribution and Charades representing international sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor-turned-filmmaker C\u00e9dric Kahn has been wanting to make a movie about psychiatry for years. But when he finally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[260370,93,61,60,270,802],"class_list":["post-613962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-cu00e9dric-kahn","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-venice-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}