"Healing" Institutions: A Glimpse into the French System's Flaws The recent Venice film festival entry, A Place to Heal, has been praised for its unflinching portrayal of a state psychiatric facility in France.
Director Cédric Kahn's documentary style study raises questions about the very system it seeks to humanize.
Kahn's film is part of a long tradition of French cinema that explores the inner workings of institutions – think Laurent Cantet's The Class or Nicolas Philibert's To Be and to Have.