A gently profound, thoughtful and engaging examination into the relationship between the unwell and those who seek to make them better, Marie-Eve Hildbrand’s impressive film Healers (Les Guérisseurs), which opens this year’s Visions du Reel film festival, hits a much-needed tone of compassion and understanding that seems so appropriate in these pandemic times.
The premise is straightforward, but Hildbrand directs both with an astute eye and a determination to make her compact story both accessible and revealing. She also has a personal entry-point – the film is punctuated with footage of her own father Francis Hildbrand as he goes about wrapping up a long career as a local doctor.
The balance is often between young and old, showing Francis meeting with his regular patients as young medical students go through training, while also leaving room for non-medical healers, shamanistic ritual and even – rather engagingly – robots.
Especially touching is footage of the medical students buying their first stethoscopes (the “holy grail” as one describes it with a smile) and going through practice interviews with patients. Their instructors help them in developing a compassionate manner and in helping protect them from their own emotional instincts.
One student expresses worries about her doubts and lack of self-confidence, and goes to see a holistic healer (who gets her to blow at an egg as a way of ridding the doubts from her body), while another learns about medical procedures through the joys of Virtual Reality as she examines the avatar of a muscular young man in very tight white shorts. There are even a few robots to illustrate a potential future where patients can interact with a mechanical surrogate. While the sequence reinforces the sense that all avenues are being examined, the underlining sense is that human contact remains the heart and soul of healing.
Marie-Eve Hildebrand, who was voice director on animated hit My Life as a Courgette, has crafted a film that is ultimately uplifting and inspirational despite being dealing with suffering and illness. It never wallows in sadness or pain, but instead celebrates the desire to heal and provide care as compassionately as possible.
She manages to keep the tone light and fresh, and the visuals are nicely complemented by Christian Pahud’s score, helping to deliver a film that is engagingly complex and remarkably appropriate at a time when the pandemic is shining the spotlight on those who dedicate their lives to business of healing.
Switzerland, 2021, 80mins
Dir Marie-Eve Hildbrand
Production Bande a Part Films
Producers Jean-Stéphane Bron, Agnieszka Ramu
Cinematography Augustin Losserand, Marie-Eve Hildbrand
Editors Emile Morier, Julie Lena
Music Christian Pahud
